While the Port Townsend High School Mock Trial team didn’t win the two-day state competition March 22-23, they placed well enough to earn the praise of their coach, Chris Pierson, who faced an old rival on familiar terrain at Olympia that weekend.

The PTHS Mock Trial team finished 13th at the state competition.

One of Port Townsend’s rivals was Archbishop Murphy High School, coached by Roger Brodniak.

“Roger and I first met in that same courtroom in a mock trial 13 years ago,” Pierson said.

PT won two trials, against Archbishop Murphy and Richland high schools, before losing to Franklin High School, the national champions, and arguing what Pierson deemed “a tight round” against Seattle Arts and Science Academy.

“I had seen this as a rebuilding season, but our team competed at the highest level, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Pierson said. “The trial versus Archbishop Murphy was smart and clean. I’m happy we prevailed, of course, but it was a beautiful round for the students and both sides prevailed, really, because it was such a fantastic trial.”

The Port Townsend team entered their third trial undefeated against state and national champions Franklin High School, which PTHS junior Lilly Montgomery gushed over after the fact.

“That trial was so fun,” Montgomery said. “The energy in the room was electric.”

Pierson described it as “a signature round for our program,” adding that Montgomery and PTHS senior Sarah Lee gave “their best opening statements and closing arguments of the year.”

As a defense attorney, Montgomery was nominated for best attorney at the state championships, as was PTHS freshman Maya Dow, who argued for the plaintiff, along with Finn O’Donnell and Emillia Nunn. Best witness nominations went to Orion Pendley, Kincaid Gould, River Kisler and Nicky Massie.

“Everyone contributed to the team’s solid performances,” Pierson said.

This year’s case, titled “Flyspecking,” pitted the residents of the fictional Moonlight Estates subdivision against the owners of a feedlot the residents said has been blighting their homes.

Among the complaints raised were noxious odors, piles of manure, flies, truck noise, stream pollution and a bellowing bull named “Boscoe.”

The ranchers argued their feedlot was an approved and appropriate use of their land.

Max Stewart played dairy rancher turned real estate tycoon Kit Keller, while Grace Wentzel played a sympathetic defendant as small farmer Loren Greendrover, from the Gray Eden Ranch.

Rounding out the witnesses were truck driver Carrol Hawke, played by Callay Boire, and Liam Stengel as a county environmental enforcement agent.

The PTHS team is making plans to work up arguments to help state champion Franklin High prepare for the national competition in Athens, Georgia, in May.