{"id":226257,"date":"2026-04-10T12:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:53:08","slug":"stu-trial-team-wins-2026-national-online-championship-title-the-florida-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226257\/","title":{"rendered":"STU Trial Team wins 2026 national online championship title \u2013 The Florida Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                STU Trial Team wins 2026 national online championship title<\/p>\n<p>                <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-557463\" class=\"wp-image-557463 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trial-Team-Online-National-Championship-Competition.jpg\" alt=\"STU Trial Team photo.\" width=\"1236\" height=\"750\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-557463\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Thomas University College of Law Trial Team won a championship and multiple individual honors at the 2026 Online National Championship.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"192\" data-end=\"394\">St. Thomas University College of Law is celebrating a national championship and multiple individual honors after its Trial Team delivered a standout performance at the 2026 Online National Championship.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"396\" data-end=\"535\">St. Thomas sent four teams to compete across two divisions, with three advancing to the semifinal rounds following preliminary competition.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"537\" data-end=\"621\">Andrea Garcia-Baerga (3L) and Samantha Swartz (2L) each earned Best Advocate honors.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"623\" data-end=\"883\">Two St. Thomas teams advanced to the championship round, facing teams from Drexel University School of Law and Cumberland School of Law. Team 159 \u2014 Andrea Garcia-Baerga and Natalie Dominguez, both 3Ls \u2014 won its division title and was crowned national champion.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"885\" data-end=\"1210\">Other St. Thomas teams also posted strong results. Team 120, composed of Angelique Crespo (2L) and Rhod Belizaire (3L), included an Outstanding Advocate honoree and a finalist. Team 126, Morgan Chudd (2L) and Samantha Swartz (2L), reached the semifinals. Team 151, Yaileen Valdes (3L) and Sophie De Armas (3L), also competed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1212\" data-end=\"1326\">The teams were coached by alumni Conor Sloan, Ernesto Leo, Alyssa Levy, and Jessica Silva.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1328\" data-end=\"1716\">The Online National Championship was launched by Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, and UCLA School of Law to expand access to trial competitions. The format pairs two-student teams, with one serving as prosecutor and the other as defense attorney, and guarantees multiple preliminary rounds before elimination play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STU Trial Team wins 2026 national online championship title St. Thomas University College of Law Trial Team won&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-226257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}