Jim Seimas of the Santa Cruz Sentinel won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2019 contest for game story in the D Division.
Seimas will be presented with his first-place plaque at the 2020 APSE Summer Conference Banquet on June 27 at The Alexander hotel in Indianapolis.
Scott Chancey of the Florence Morning News finished second.
Contest chair Lisa Wilson and fellow APSE officers Todd M. Adams, Gary Potosky and Dan Spears prepared the entries. Sports editors in the D Division entered 45 stories in the category. Click here to join and enter the contest for 2020.
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, nine points for second and so on down 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 winner in each category will receive a plaque at the summer conference. The second- through 10th-place writers will receive frameable certificates.
Game stories were a single article from a live event, with emphasis on reader interest, and quality of writing and thoroughness of reporting.
A list of the Top 10:
1. Jim Seimas, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 51 points (2 first-place votes)
2. Scott Chancey, Florence Morning News, 47 points (2 first-place votes)
3. Josh Needelman, The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.), 43 points (2 first-place votes)
4. Ellis L. Williams, The Post-Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.), 34 points
5. Kyle Dawson, Aiken (S.C.) Standard, 32 points
6. Ryan Black, The Manhattan Mercury, 31 points
7. Jake Adams, The Carlisle Sentinel, 27 points
8. Aaron Williams, Shasta County Sports, 23 points
9. (tie) T.J. Holmes, Shasta County Sports, 21 points
9. (tie) Carlos Silva Jr., Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 21 points
