Maimonides Mock Trial Team in State Finals

The Maimonides School Mock Trial team will compete for the state championship Friday beginning at 10 a.m. at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston. The opposition will be provided by Sharon High School.

The 27-student contingent qualified for the match Monday, prevailing over Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School of South Hadley at a trial held in Worcester. Pioneer Valley was last year's runner-up and a past state champion.

Maimonides is a real Cinderella story in this season and tournament, disposing of teams from Brookline High, Cambridge Rindge and Latin and defending state champion Newton South.

Mock Trial, which is a program of the Massachusetts Bar Association, tests students' courtroom talents and teamwork. The Maimonides students, with help from their advisor, Assistant District Atty. David Fredette, as well as retired Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein, process case information and prepare to take either side, as determined by a pre-trial coin flip.

Only the 2006 Maimonides team has advanced to the state tournament since the program began at the school 10 years ago.

Friday morning's championship trial, which is open to the public, will be judged by a three-member panel, comprised of a presiding judge, who will conduct and score the trial, as well as two additional scoring judges.

Members of the Maimonides team are seniors Harry Chiel, Avi Fuld, Pnina Grossman, Natan Kawesch, Michael Kosowsky, Leah Sarna and Hana Snow, juniors Zachary Avigan, Steven Fine, Benjamin Fisher, Sam Fisher, Samuel Ming-Sum Fisher, Daniel Lasman, Benjamin Niewood, Esther Petrack and Gabriel Rosen, sophomores Jonathan Robison, Yitzhak Snow and Aaron Zwiebach and freshmen Annie Davis, Yonina Frim, Jonathan Michaelson, Gabriela Mizrahi-Arnaud, Tess Niewood, David Rubinstein, Elliot Salinger and Chana-Sophie Vester