Staffs of The Dallas Morning News and Los Angeles Times tied for first place in the Division A event coverage category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
The Dallas Morning News’ winning entry was for its coverage of the Mavericks’ shocking trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The L.A. Times’ winning entry was for its coverage of the Dodgers’ win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.
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.
The Morning News and the L.A. Times will receive first-place plaques. The third- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 24 entries in the Division A event coverage category. Each entry was permitted to contain up to five pieces, along with supplementary optional content for judges to consider. 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, reading 103 total pieces in the category. The committee determined 10 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.
T1. Brad Townsend, Mike Curtis, Shawn McFarland, Tim Cowlishaw, Kevin Sherrington; The Dallas Morning News (3) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T1. Staff; Los Angeles Times (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
3. Staff; The Athletic (2) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
4. Staff; The Philadelphia Inquirer 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
5. Dave McMenamin, Ramona Shelburne, Tim MacMahon, Tim Bontemps, Kevin Pelton; ESPN.com 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
6. Nicole Yang, Dan Shaughnessy, Tara Sullivan, Ben Volin, Chad Finn; The Boston Globe 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T7. Staff; The Seattle Times 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T7. Jordan McPherson, Greg Cote, Connie Ogle, Milena Malaver; Miami Herald 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
9. Bennett Durando, Troy Renck, Sean Keeler, Luca Evans, Matt Schubert; The Denver Post 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
10. Anthony Sulla-Heffinger, Ben Fowlkes, Kel Dansby, Chuck Mindenhall, Robert Jackman; Yahoo Sports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
