Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category D Beat Writing.
Weiszer will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.
Brett Vito of the Denton Record-Chronicle finished second and Josh Vitale of the Montgomery Advertiser was third.
A Beat Writing entry is a series of articles by a single author (can be more than one on the Breaking News entry only) that shows authoritative, newsy and innovative coverage of a beat.
Sports editors in Category D submitted 34 entries. The contest is open to APSE members.
Contest chair and First Vice President Gary Potosky and fellow APSE officers — President Lisa Wilson, Second Vice President Jorge Rojas and Third Vice President Steve Hemphill prepared the entries.
Because this year’s in-person APSE Winter Conference was canceled due to the pandemic, all judging was remote during three weeks in February. Each category had a set of judges examine all entries, choose a Top 10 as a group (in some cases, the ranking includes fewer or more than 10 entries), and each of those judges ranked the finalists individually. A second set of judges in each category then also ranked those finalists.
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 finishers will receive frameable certificates.
The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries, and voting results.
1. Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 53 points, 2 first-place votes
2. Brett Vito, Denton Record-Chronicle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 44 points, 2 first-place votes
3. Josh Vitale, Montgomery Advertiser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 39 points, 2 first-place votes
4. Cory Diaz, The News-Star 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 37 points
5. Glenn Guilbeau, The Daily Advertiser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 36 points
6. Ryan Black, The Manhattan Mercury 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 35 points
7. Jordan Guskey, Star Press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 28 points
8. Mallory Merda, The Sentinel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 21 points
9. T.J. Holmes, Shasta County Sports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20 points
10. George Robinson, The Leaf-Chronicle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 16 points
