Andrew John of The Desert Sun won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2018 contest in Game Story for the C Division.
John will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2019 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Omni CNN Center on June 19.
John edged runner-up Mike DeFabo of the Anderson Herald-Bulletin. Scott Petrak of The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) finished third .
Sports editors in the C Division submitted 51 game story entries. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Contest chair Todd M. Adams and fellow APSE officers John Bednarowski, Lisa Wilson and Dan Spears prepared entries, which included online links to stories for the first time this year.
In February, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference in Orlando, 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.
The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries..
1. Andrew John, The Desert Sun 51 points, one first-place vote
2. Mike DeFabo, Anderson Herald-Bulletin 49 points, two first-place votes
3. Scott Petrak, The Chronicle-Telegram 40 points
4. Matt Tait, Lawrence Journal-World 39 points, one first-place vote
5. Joey LoMonaco, The Free Lance-Star 34 points, one first-place vote
6. Brant Wilkerson-New, News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) 30 points
7. Nathan Baird, Journal & Courier 25 points, one first-place vote
T-8. Conor Foley, The Times-Tribune, 21 points
T-8. Michael Lycklama, Idaho Statesman (Boise) 21 points
10. Tyler Cleveland, Clarion Ledger 20 points
