Brian Fonseca and Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media in Newark, New Jersey, won first place in the Division A breaking news category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
Fonseca and Politi’s winning entry detailed how then-Rutgers gymnastics head coach Umme Salim-Beasley had “lost control” of her program and at times “presided over a divided and dysfunctional organization,” all while having an undisclosed relationship with former athletic director Pat Hobbs that violated Rutgers University policy, according to the report of an external investigation obtained by the reporters.
APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2026 APSE Summer Conference banquet July 18 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. Registration for the conference is open; you can register right here.
Fonseca and Politi will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 60 entries in the Division A breaking news category. Contest chair Perryn Keys and APSE officers Paul Barrett, Erik Hall and Tony Maluso prepared the entries.
Contest results: Digital, print and podcasts | Writing and photography
Judges convened in late February, in person at the APSE Winter Conference in Las Vegas and remotely around the nation, to select the top entrants. The committee determined nine finalists, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10. The final 10 were given to a second judging group in late February and March, ranking the entries from Nos. 1 to 10 in the same fashion.
The final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The top 10 are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses, along with links to the winning entries.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
1. Brian Fonseca, Steve Politi, NJ Advance Media (Newark) (2)
2. Molly Hensley-Clancy, The Washington Post (1)
T3. Bruce Feldman, Austin Meek, Katie Strang, The Athletic (1)
T3. Meghan L. Hall, USA TODAY Sports (1)
5. Calvin Watkins, Jamie Landers, Elissa Jorgensen, The Dallas Morning News
6. Matthew Futterman, Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic (1)
7. Scott M. Reid, Southern California News Group
8. Ross Dellenger, Yahoo Sports
9. Adam Himmelsbach, The Boston Globe
10. Brent Schrotenboer, USA TODAY Sports
