By John Bednarowski
APSE First Vice President
Kyle Dawson of the Aiken Standard won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2017 contest in the Game Story category for the Under 30,000 circulation division.
Dawson won for his story about Sergio Garcia’s Masters victory. The winner in each category will receive a plaque at the 2018 APSE Summer Conference in Nashville. The banquet and awards dinner will conclude the APSE Summer Conference, which takes place June 17-20 at at the Marriott Hotel Nashville / Vanderbilt University.
Joel Reichenberger of the Steaboat Pilot & Today finished second. Chandler Rome of The Anniston Star and Will Dramlich of the Lewiston Sun Journal tied for third.
Sports editors in the Under 30,000 category submitted 97 Game Story entries. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Contest chair John Bednarowski and fellow APSE officers Jeff Rosen, Todd Adams and Robert Gagliardi numbered each entry, assuring they had been stripped of headlines, graphics, bylines and any other element that would identify the writer or news organization.
In February, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., and off-site around the country, selected a top 10, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, 9 points for second and so on to one point for a 10th-place vote. The final 10 were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-10 in the same fashion. The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The top 10 is listed below, with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.
1. Kyle Dawson, Aiken Standard, 51 points (four first-place votes)
Sergio’s time to shine: Garcia wins first major in Masters playoff
- Joel Reichenberger, Steamboat Pilot & Today, 43 points (one first-place vote)
Pain, glory mix Sunday in Bull Bash
T-3. Chandler Rome, The Anniston Star, 41 points (one first-place vote)
LESS COWBELL: Tide’s Hurts quiets MSU with comeback win
T-3. Wil Kramlich, Sun Journal, 41 points
U.S. Alpine Championships: Roberts wins title for his brother
- Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald, 40 points
UND able to laugh about middle-of-the-night hotel fire after key win over Miami
- Brandon Foster, Casper Star-Tribune, 34 points
Wyoming football mounts snowy comeback for 16-13 Border War win
- Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record, 26 points
Dover vs. Kinnelon: A McDonald family affair on the diamond
- John Bohnenkamp, The Hawk Eye, 23 points
- Mike Graham, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 16 points
Gray throws for six TDs to lead Mustangs to the school’s first state quarterfinal appearance
10. Danny Schmidt, Marin Independent Journal, 15 points
Drake tops Marin Catholic behind Owen Hamilton’s walk-off HR in 2-day, 19-inning MCAL title game
