Andrew Carter of the News & Observer won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division B Long Feature category.
Carter will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2022 APSE Summer Conference banquet at The Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis on June 18. Click here to register for the conference.
Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch finished second, and Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer took third.
Sports editors in Division B submitted 64 entries in Long Feature.
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.
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.
The top 10 is listed below with voting results and links to the winning entries.
1. Andrew Carter, News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 55 points (2 first-place votes)
2. Brian Hedger, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 44 points (1 first-place vote)
3. Scott Fowler, The Charlotte Observer, 43 points (2 first-place votes)
4. Eric Walden, Salt Lake Tribune, 37 points (1 first-place vote)
5. Jason Wolf, The Buffalo News, 32 points
6. Jim Ayello, IndyStar (Indianapolis), 29 points
7. Zach Dean, Daytona Beach News-Journal, 28 points
8. Gentry Estes, The Tennessean (Nashville), 22 points
9. Gordon Monson, Salt Lake Tribune, 21 points
10. Jenni Carlson, The Oklahoman, 19 points
