Jason Wolf, Jay Skurski, Mark Gaughan, Mike Harrington and Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division B Projects category for their collection of stories contrasting the Bills and Sabres, who share the same owners.
They 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.
Evan Bland, Sam McKewon, Dirk Chatelain, Jimmy Watkins and Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald finished second, and Jacob Unruh and Jeff Patterson of The Oklahoman took third.
Sports editors in Division B submitted 21 entries in Projects.
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. The Buffalo News – Jason Wolf, Jay Skurski, Mark Gaughan, Mike Harrington, Lance Lysowski 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 45 points
2. Omaha World-Herald – Evan Bland, Sam McKewon, Dirk Chatelain, Jimmy Watkins, Tom Shatel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 44 points (1 first-place vote)
3. The Oklahoman – Jacob Unruh, Jeff Patterson 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 42 points (1 first-place vote)
T4. News & Observer – Steve Wiseman, Luke DeCock, Ned Barnett, Kevin Keister 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 34 points
T4. Louisville Courier Journal – Andre Toran, Jonathan Saxon, Dominique Yates, Hayes Gardner, Jason Frakes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 34 points (1 first-place vote)
6. IndyStar – Dana Hunsinger Benbow, Nathan Brown, Zach Osterman, Gregg Doyel, Shari Rudavsky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 33 points (1 first-place vote)
T7. The Columbus Dispatch – Ray Stein, Bailey Johnson 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 30 points
T7. Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard – Chris Carlson 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 30 points (1 first-place vote)
9. Austin American-Statesman – Cedric Golden, Brian Davis, Kirk Bohls 1, 2, 3, 29 points (1 first-place vote)
10. San Antonio Express-News – Mike Finger, Jeff McDonald, Greg Luca, David Hinojosa 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 points
