PORTLAND – After “law students” from Hampden Academy and Lewiston High School gave what was described as “dazzling” performances, Hampden won the State Mock Trial Championship Th ursday for the third year in a row.

Lewiston students were disappointed but gracious.

“Overall it was well done by both teams,” sophomore Athena Andoniades said in a Cumberland County court room where the competition was held. “We came here to deliver. That’s what the end result was, we did. I guess the best team wins, but I know my team was on top of things.”

“We did all that we could, and it was a close call,” said Lewiston senior Ernest Brown. “In the end if the better team won, the better team won,” he said. But “we were good competition for them. We gave them a run for their money.”

During the afternoon, students took turns acting as lawyers and witnesses for the defense or the plaintiff before three judges, including Maine’s Chief Justice Leigh Saufley.

In the fictitious civil case, Jamie Potter, 20, was suing Kris Schultz, 52, for injuries Potter suffered while playing paint ball at Schultz’s facility.

Lewiston argued the plaintiff’s case, and Hampden the defendant’s.

Watching the trial, it was easy to forget the case wasn’t real. High school students often sounded like real lawyers, raising objections and arguing against them.

Lewiston’s Ann Danforth was one of a team of lawyers for Potter. Danforth gave an opening statement, saying the paint ball facility owner’s negligence was responsible for Potter’s injuries.

The facility failed to properly warn players of the danger, did not make it clear players were never to remove their goggles, and provided faulty equipment, it was claimed.

During the game Potter’s goggles fogged. She did what anyone would do, Danforth said, she removed her goggles to see. When she did so, she was hit in the temple with a paint ball.

The paint ball should have broken on impact, but it did not. Potter was left with a severe concussion that left her impaired and unable to pursue her dream of college basketball.

Hampden’s defense argued that Schultz was not responsible for Potter’s injuries, Potter was. She should never have removed her goggles during the game, and failed to raise her hand to stop the game with the cease-fire sign, he told the court.

Lewiston tried to poke holes in the defense by a putting paint ball worker, Lewiston’s Matt Shaw, on the stand. Lawyer Ernest Brown asked Shaw about the facility’s operations. Shaw said he had told the owner he was concerned about players’ safety. Paint ball guns do not fire consistently, and games were allowed when it was too cold, causing the paint ball pellets to harden, Shaw testified.

Hampden attorneys countered that Potter actually hurt herself in a fall during a basketball game several weeks before the paint ball game. While playing basketball she suffered an earlier concussion and ignored a doctor’s order to refrain from activity.

Before Saufley announced the winner, she said the competition was very close. “It’s very difficult to choose a winner when you have such extraordinary groups in front of us,” Saufley said.

Fellow judge, lawyer Joe Pierce of Pierce-Atwood, agreed. Students’ poise and preparation in the courtroom surpassed his expectations. “I also thought the witnesses deserve the Academy Award.”

The third judge was Peter Pitegoff, dean of the University of Maine School of Law, who called the students’ performances “dazzling.” What they did measures up to law school students, Pitegoff said. “If you decide to go into law, you’ll do fine.”

As a sophomore, Andoniades said this is her first year of mock trial. She started in the fall “as a girl stuttering during the questioning. Now I have that confidence.”

She said she’s planning to become a lawyer.