HIGH LIFE : Cypress Team Awarded State’s Mock Trial Title

Cypress High School won the state title at the Mock Trial Championship on April 8 in Sacramento. The victory marked the first time an Orange County school has won the 7-year-old competition.

By being voted the top overall squad by two of the three evaluators at the three-day, round-robin contest, the 12-member Cypress team won a place at the national finals in Dallas next month.

Cypress was among 21 county champion teams that argued both sides of a hypothetical criminal case before real judges in the contest sponsored by the Los Angeles office of the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

The teams were judged on courtroom demeanor, knowledge of the issue and performance of roles.

Cypress team member Craig Broscow also was presented with a best-attorney award for acting as a defense lawyer, plus another for outstanding pretrial motion.

“We were so excited when we won,” Cypress senior Steve Pan said. “Before the competition, we (the team) decided to play nonchalant if we were to win, but as soon as we realized that we had actually won, everyone started jumping up and down.”

Other members of the Cypress team, which is coached by history teacher John Gruendyke, are Gregg Baerr, Marlene Boehm, David Brookler, Sandy Buckner, Anna Choe, Cory Hand, Philip Jimenez, Arifa Mirza, Celia Ng and Kathy Warren.

--Lynda Kim

Keri Ott of La Habra was crowned 1988’s Orange County Miss TEEN on April 2 at the Irvine Marriott. She will receive $500 in cash, an eight-week self-improvement course from a modeling company, and an opportunity to compete for the California state title in Fresno July 15-17. The state’s winner will compete for the national title in Kansas City.

First runner-up among the 34 contestants was Orange’s Susan Lynne Tillou. Placentia’s Karen Rose Folino was second runner-up, Garden Grove’s Karen Sue Knalson third and La Palma’s Camellia Ping Wang fourth. The Miss TEEN pageant emphasizes scholastic achievement, community service, interview skills and talent.

Other awards were presented to Garden Grove’s Karen Sue Knalson (scholastic achievement), Yorba Linda’s Helen Ahn (voluntary service), La Habra Heights’ Jessica Lynn Haines (talent), Anaheim’s Ofelia Escarcega (Miss Photogenic), Orange’s Tillou (speech, Miss Congeniality, formal presentation and interview) and Placentia’s Folino (interview).

--Shanne Ho

Alison Moreno, Miss El Toro, won the Miss California Teen pageant on April 2 in Palm Springs. Moreno, a junior at El Toro High School, goes on to compete in the Miss U.S.A. Teen pageant July 26. El Toro sophomore Michelle Kaylor was fourth runner-up.

“Winning the pageant was even more special because Angi (Aylor, last year’s winner) is my best friend,” said Moreno, who also was voted “most photogenic.

--Dawn Stone

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.”

--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)