David Thompson of The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer and Chris Kwiecinski of The Spectrum & Daily News in St. George, Utah, tied for first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division D Explanatory category.

Thompson and Kwiecinski will be presented first-place plaques at the 2022 APSE Summer Conference banquet at The Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis on June 18.        

Mitchell Forde of PowerMizzou.com took third.                                                                                               

Sports editors in Division D submitted 29 entries in Explanatory. 

Contest chair Jorge Rojas and fellow APSE officers Gary Potosky, Naila-Jean Meyers and Ed Reed prepared the entries. The contest is open to APSE members. 

Click here to join.

In February, judges at the APSE Winter Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., selected a top 10, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10 on a separate 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 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.

Explanatory stories include reporting on trends, issues, and original ideas that sheds new light on issues and personalities in the news. They go beyond the “yesterday” of the breaking news story.

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

T1. David Thompson, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, 48 points (2 first-place votes)

T1. Chris Kwiecinski, The Spectrum & Daily News (St. George, Utah), 48 points (1 first-place vote)

3. Mitchell Forde, PowerMizzou.com, 43 points (1 first-place vote)

4. Monica Holland, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, 42 points (2 first-place votes)

5. Cecil Joyce, The Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), 34 points

6. Tim Buckley, The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, La.), 33 points

7. Nick Kelly, The Tuscaloosa News, 28 points

8. Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record (Rockaway, N.J.), 23 points

9. Brett Vito, Denton (Tex.) Record-Chronicle, 17 points

10. John Bednarowski, Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal, 14 points

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