Marc Weiszer of The Athens Banner-Herald in Georgia won first place in the Division D event coverage category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
Weiszer’s winning entry was for his coverage of the Georgia-Notre Dame Sugar Bowl, which was postponed after a truck plowed into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 15 people less than 24 hours before scheduled kickoff time.
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.
Weiszer will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 33 entries in the Division D 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 121 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.
1. Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald (3) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
2. James F. Moore Jr., The Fayetteville Observer (N.C.) (3) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
3. Calum McAndrew, Columbia Daily Tribune 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
4. Colin Gay, Chase Goodbread, Amelia Hurley and Emilee Smarr, The Tuscaloosa News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
5. Frank Bodani, York (Pa.) Daily Record 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T6. Tim Dashiell, Anthony Maluso, Brian Krista, Carroll County Times 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T6. Loren Nelson and Jeff Lawler, Legacy Hockey 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
T6. Will Dwyer and Graham Baakko, Vanderbilt Commodores On SI 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
9. Adam Cole and Jaeden Day, Montgomery Advertiser 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
10. Matt Schuckman, Muddy River Sports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
