Criminal justice students win awards at ACJA conference

OCT. 27 – Trine University bested eight competitors from eight colleges to earn the Top Gun Award and the Sweepstakes Award, given to the team with the most awards. Trine students competed during the American Criminal Justice Association (ACJA) Lambda Alpha Epsilon 2015 Region 6 Conference.

“Our current and former students represented Trine in an outstanding manner and won the top two awards,” said Craig Laker, dean of the Jannen School of Arts & Sciences. Trine’s team is known for strong performances in past competitions.

John Kidd, a 2015 criminal justice graduate from Fishers, Ind., was awarded the Top Gun for scoring 436 out of 480 points.

Trine’s Tau Alpha Omicron chapter of ACJA won 25 of 83 awards to win the Sweepstakes Award.

Trine also won numerous other awards during the conference from Oct. 15-18 in Macomb, Ill.

The team won 10 Academic Awards for knowledge of law, corrections, juvenile justice, police management and Lambda Alpha Epsilon.

In the law category, Kayla Keith, a senior criminal justice major from Griffith, won second place in the upper division and Marc Edwards, a fall 2015 grad, won first place in the professional division.

• Corrections -- Dustin Tucker, junior criminal justice major from Lake Ann, Mich., second, upper; Laker, third, professional.
• Juvenile justice -- MiKayla Marcinek, a junior criminal justice major from Lowell, first, upper; Tucker, second, upper; Francisco Ortiz, instructor, second, professional.
• Police management – Ortiz, second, professional, Brittney Hampton, fall 2015 grad, third, professional
• National chapter knowledge – Keith, third, upper
• CSI (three-member teams) – Tucker, Dylan Risser, a junior criminal justice major from Goshen, and Zach Dietl, a sophomore psychology major from Plymouth, first, upper; Marcinek, Stacy Herook, a junior psychology major from Haverhill, Mass., and Keith, third, upper; Laker, Hampton and Ortiz, first, professional
• Physical agility – Tucker, first, and Risser, second, both in males younger than 25 division
• Handgun individual  -- Risser, second, upper; Tucker, third, upper; Kidd, first, professional; Andrew O’Connor, fall 2015 grad, second, professional; Marc Edwards, 2015 grad, third, professional
• Handgun team (three-person team) – Tucker, Risser, Dietl, first, upper; Kidd, O’Connor, Edwards, first, professional; Laker, Hampton, Ortiz, third, professional

Photo: Front row, from left, Carlie Crawford, Marc Edwards, Brittney Hampton, Stacy Herook, Catherine Porter. Back row from left, Dustin Tucker, Kayla Keith, Dylan Risser, Andrew O’Connor, John Kidd, instructor Francisco Ortiz, Zach Dietl, MiKayla Marcinek and professor Craig Laker.