Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category C Beat Writing.
Wood will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.
Ben Portnoy of The Commercial Dispatch finished second and Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald was third.
A Beat Writing entry is a series of articles by a single author (can be more than one on the Breaking News entry only) that shows authoritative, newsy and innovative coverage of a beat.
Sports editors in Category C submitted 48 entries. The contest is open to APSE members.
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 12th-place finishers will receive frameable certificates.
The top 12 is listed below with links to the winning entries, and voting results.
1. Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 61 points, 1 first-place vote
2. Ben Portnoy, The Commercial Dispatch 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 48 points, 1 first-place vote
3. Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 44 points, 2 first-place votes
T4. Taylor Eldridge, The Wichita Eagle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 42 points
T4. Matt Connolly, The State 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 42 points, 2 first-place votes
T6. Eric Hansen, South Bend Tribune 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 41 points
T6. Theo Lawson, The Spokesman-Review 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 41 points
8. Chris Carlson, Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 37 points
9. Michael Lycklama, Idaho Statesman 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 31 points
10. Adam Fisher, Naples Daily News 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 28 points
11. Greg Hadley, The State 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 27 points
12. Conor O’Neill, Winston-Salem Journal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 26 points
