After qualifying, the Lincoln Constitution Team competed for the National Classroom Law Project title in April at Washington, D.C., placing sixth.

This marks the tenth time that the team has placed in the top 10. Of those appearances, Lincoln has won first place six times. This is tied for the most of any high school.

Over the course of this year, four of the six units that the team is made up of lost at least one member. 

Sophomore Theo McCormick was a member of unit six, which lost two members.

“With six people leaving, there were a lot of [questions] of if we could even compete with the other schools,” said McCormick.

Despite the uncertainty, McCormick and his unit teammates successfully adjusted and came out stronger.

“The only thing that really changed was our ability to do research, […] but it’s not as bad as it would seem,” said McCormick. “Our unit especially had a good group dynamic and I think being able to interact well with the people on your unit is more important than having a full six people.”

McCormick and his unit helped the team at the state competition on Feb. 4 to secure the wild card spot for nationals with a second place finish.

“There was not a whole lot of morale since at regionals we placed fourth, there was no expectation that we would advance past state,” said McCormick. “Even after our rounds, we were not feeling super confident so we were very excited when we heard that we were going.”

This year was coach Jeff Edmundson’s final year on the team. He has been an integral component of the team since 2002. This was one of many years that he went to nationals and he was very proud of the performances.

“They came up with answers they probably didn’t know they even had and had a really good interchange with the judges,” said Edmundson.

Edmundson has made many great memories with the team that he says he will miss but he knows the team is set for the future thanks to the blueprint set out by their decades of success.

“I will still be around to help the new coach and for practice judging,” said Edmundson. “The growth in the kids from May to the following April is just fun to see, to teach and to find out what things they are capable of.”