Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Mark Potts, Gustavo Arellano, Jessica Q. Chen and Steve Saldivar of the Los Angeles Times won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division A Projects category for their documentary series on the 40th anniversary of Fernandomania.

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.      

Bedel Saget, Larry Buchanan, Emily Rhyne, Joe Ward and Paula Ceballos Delgado of The New York Times finished second, and Baxter Holmes of ESPN took third.                                                                                               

Sports editors in Division A submitted 26 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 

Click here to join.

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. Los Angeles Times — Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Mark Potts, Gustavo Arellano, Jessica Q. Chen, Steve Saldivar 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 55 points (2 first-place votes)
2. The New York Times — Bedel Saget, Larry Buchanan, Emily Rhyne, Joe Ward, Paula Ceballos Delgado 1, 2, 3, 4, 48 points (3 first-place votes)
3. ESPN.com — Baxter Holmes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 37 points
4. The San Francisco Chronicle — John Shea, Bruce Jenkins, Scott Ostler, Ron Kroichick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 32 points (1 first-place vote)
5. Miami Herald — Michelle Kaufman, David Ovalle, Greg Cote, Jordan McPherson, Andre Fernandez 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 30 points
6. USA Today Sports — Alyssa Hertel, Paul Myerberg, Tom Schad, Brent Schrotenboer, Jim Sergent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 29 points
T7. Detroit Free Press — Evan Petzold, Ryan Ford and Jeff Seidel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 26 points
T7. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Jim Owczarski, Lori Nickel, Ben Steele, JR Radcliffe, Olivia Reiner 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 26 points
T7. The Athletic — College Football Staff 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 26 points
10. The Washington Post — Staff 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 21 points