Michael Lycklama of the Idaho Statesman won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category C Breaking news.

Lycklama will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.

Theo Lawson of The Spokesman-Review finished second and Sean Hammond of the Northwest Herald and Matt Connolly of The State tied for third.

A Breaking News entry is a single story that covers a sports news development that occurred in the most recent news cycle.

Sports editors in Category C submitted 56 stories. The contest is open to APSE members. 

Click here to join.

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 11th-place finishers will receive frameable certificates.

The top 11 is listed below with links to the winning entries, and voting results.

1. Michael Lycklama, Idaho Statesman, 51 points, 1 first-place vote

2. Theo Lawson, The Spokesman-Review, 47 points, 2 first-place votes

T3. Sean Hammond, Northwest Herald, 42 points, 1 first-place vote

T3. Matt Connolly, The State, 42 points

5. Conor Foley, The Scranton Times-Tribune, 40 points

T6. Tyler Horka, Clarion Ledger, 34 points

T6. Adam Regan, The News-Press, 34 points, 1 first-place vote

8. Mike Niziolek, The Roanoke Times, 29 points

9. Jeff Mills, News & Record, 28 points

10. Jason Munz, The Commercial Appeal, 25 points, 1 first-place vote

11. Rashad Milligan, Clarion Ledger, 24 points

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR