Political Science Students Impress Moot Court Tournament
November 14, 2013
CSULB’s moot court team of Krist Biakanja, IV and Kevin Poush, both political science majors, recently won the 2013 Upper Midwest Undergraduate Moot Court Tournament held at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa on November 8-9. This was the second event that this team has won this season — they also won the California-Texas Classic that was held at CSULB this October.Biakanja and Poush finished Friday night as the third seed and proceeded to win four straight rounds on Saturday. Out of the nineteen judges to judge them, all but one voted for Biakanja and Poush. One judge cast a ballot as a tie.
This was Poush’s first tournament and winning a regional in a maiden tournament is a rare feat. Poush has a career record of 6-0-1. For Biakanja, this is his third tournament win and his second regional win. No other CSULB mooter has won two regionals or three tournaments. His lifetime record in tournaments is 22-4-2. In elimination rounds, Biakanja has a lifetime record of 12-1 (his one loss was on a technicality that resulted from a tie ballot that was awarded to the advantaged seed). This is a remarkable achievement in a career that will take Mr. Biakanja to his second nationals in January of 2014. CSULB will have five more teams compete in at the Western Regional held on campus on Dec 6-7, 2013.