Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category D Explanatory.

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 Hudson of The Tuscaloosa News finished second and Ryan Black of The Manhattan Mercury was third.

An Explanatory story can include trends, issues, original ideas and it should explain something. It sheds new light on issues and personalities in the news. It is more than a feature story and less than a project. It goes beyond the “yesterday” of a breaking news story.

Sports editors in Category D submitted 31 stories. The contest is open to APSE members. 

Click here to join.

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, 53 points, 3 first-place votes

2. Brett Hudson, The Tuscaloosa News, 44 points, 2 first-place votes

3. Ryan Black, The Manhattan Mercury, 40 points

4. Emily Leiker, The Herald-Sun, 38 points, 1 first-place vote

5. Christopher Walsh, BamaCentral, 31 points

6. Jonas Pope, The Herald-Sun, 29 points

T7. Tyler Kraft, The Manhattan Mercury, 28 points

T7. Greg Brownell, The Post-Star, 28 points

9. Glenn Guilbeau, The Daily Advertiser, 20 points

10. Robby General, Star Press, 19 points

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