David Whitley of the Gainesville Sun won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division D Column Writing category.
Whitley 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.
The late Cecil Hurt of The Tuscaloosa News finished second, and Ryne Dennis of the Athens Banner-Herald took third.
Sports editors in Division D submitted 21 entries in Columns.
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. David Whitley, Gainesville Sun 1, 2, 3, 4, 57 points (3 first-place votes)
2. Cecil Hurt, The Tuscaloosa News 1, 2, 3, 4, 50 points (2 first-place votes)
3. Ryne Dennis, Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald 1, 2, 3, 4, 33 points
4. Nathan Max, MaxNewsToday 1, 2, 3, 4, 32 points
T5. John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal 1, 2, 3, 4, 31 points (1 first-place vote)
T5. Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal 1, 2, 3, 4, 31 points
7. Ryan Black, The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury 1, 2, 3, 4, 28 points
8. Gabe DeArmond, PowerMizzou.com 1, 2, 3, 4, 26 points
9. Marc Weiszer, Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald 1, 2, 3, 4, 25 points
10. Mike Forman, Victoria (Tex.) Advocate 1, 2, 3, 4, 17 points
