Skip to main content
Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

Kennedy: GPS sweeps to victory in Tennessee Mock Trial competition, heads to nationals

Members and coaches of the GPS Tennessee High School Mock Trial state championship team are from front left, Lauren Thacker, Katie Day, Abby Grace Kueter, Julia Combs and Reese Miller. Back row, from left, are Manasa Makam, Dr. Steve Harrison, Judge Brian House, Tammy Combs and Isis Cantrell. Photo by Pamela Hammonds contributed by GPS.
Members and coaches of the GPS Tennessee High School Mock Trial state championship team are from front left, Lauren Thacker, Katie Day, Abby Grace Kueter, Julia Combs and Reese Miller. Back row, from left, are Manasa Makam, Dr. Steve Harrison, Judge Brian House, Tammy Combs and Isis Cantrell. Photo by Pamela Hammonds contributed by GPS. Members and coaches of the GPS Tennessee High School Mock Trial state championship team are from front left, Lauren Thacker, Katie Day, Abby Grace Kueter, Julia Combs and Reese Miller. Back row, from left, are Manasa Makam, Dr. Steve Harrison, Judge Brian House, Tammy Combs and Isis Cantrell. Photo by Pamela Hammonds contributed by GPS.

Yikes, there was a screw in my chicken sandwich!

Repeat that alarming sentence to the mock trial team at Girls Preparatory School and you’re likely to get an interesting response.

A smile, perhaps. Or maybe a groan.

For two years, GPS mock trial team members were locked in on a case involving a foreign object in a chicken sandwich. But was the screw planted or intentionally swallowed? That was the question at hand.

Ultimately, when the pressure was on last month to determine the 2021 Tennessee High School Mock Trial champion, one team refused to choke. (Pardon the pun.)