Michael Lycklama of the Idaho Statesman won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category C Short Feature.

Lycklama will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.

Ethan Joyce of the Winston-Salem Journal finished second and Drew Hill of the Daily Memphian and Dave Nichols of the Spokeman-Review tied for third.

A Short Feature entry is a feature story that rewards the many shorter stories that are outstanding but don’t command the length that more deeply reported pieces demand. A Short Feature entry in Category C cannot exceed 1,000 words.

Sports editors in Category C submitted 59 stories. The contest is open to APSE members. 

Click here to join.

Contest chair and First Vice President Gary Potosky and fellow APSE officers — President Lisa Wilson, Second Vice President Jorge Rojas and Third Vice President Steve Hemphill prepared the entries.

Because this year’s in-person APSE Winter Conference was canceled due to the pandemic, all judging was remote during three weeks in February. Each category had a set of judges examine all entries, choose a Top 10 as a group (in some cases, the ranking includes fewer or more than 10 entries), and each of those judges ranked the finalists individually. A second set of judges in each category then also ranked those finalists.

The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.

The winner in each category will receive a plaque at the summer conference. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frameable certificates.

The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries, and voting results.

1. Michael Lycklama, Idaho Statesman, 48 points, 1 first-place vote

2. Ethan Joyce, Winston-Salem Journal, 43 points, 1 first-place vote

T3. Drew Hill, The Daily Memphian, 40 points

T3. Dave Nichols, The Spokesman-Review, 40 points, 1 first-place vote

5. Chris Carlson, Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard, 37 points, 1 first-place vote

6. John Blanchette, The Spokesman-Review, 33 points, 1 first-place vote

T7. Joe Stevenson, Northwest Herald, 25 points

T7. Theo DeRosa, The Commercial Dispatch, 25 points, 1 first-place vote

9. Dave Reynolds, Peoria Journal Star, 22 points

10. Tim Trower, Mail Tribune, 17 points

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