Dylan Montz of the Ames Tribune won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2018 contest in Breaking News Story for the D Division.
Montz, who wrote about reaction to the murder of Iowa State golfer Celia Barquin Arozamena, finished just ahead of Reed Koutelas and David Sack of the Columbia Missourian and Travis Lazarczyk and Steve Craig of the Kennebec Journal.
Sports editors in the D Division submitted 41 breaking news 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.
Montz will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2019 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Omni CNN Center in Atlanta on June 19. The second- through 10th-place writers will receive frameable certificates.
Breaking news entries were judged on their timeliness, thoroughness, exclusivity and significance. Editors were allowed to submit a cover letter to explain who broke the story, how quickly the information was published and how it might have been expanded upon for print or later news cycles.
The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries..
1. Dylan Montz, Ames Tribune, 47 points
2. Reed Koutelas and David Sack, Columbia Missourian, 46 points (2 first-place votes)
3. Travis Lazarczyk and Steve Craig, Kennebec Journal, 45 points (1)
4. Ryan Black, The Manhattan Mercury, 42 points (2)
5. Joel Reichenberger, Steamboat Pilot & Today, Steamboat Springs, Colo., 39 points
6. Jim Seimas, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 31 points
7. Nubyjas Wilborn, Marietta Daily Journal, 29 points (1)
8. Travis Hines, Ames Tribune, 25 points
9. Jeremiah Johnke, Wyoming Tribune Eagle, 16 points10. Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald, 10 points
