Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division D Breaking News category for his November article on a sexual assault allegation against a Georgia football player.

Weiszer 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.      

Bennett Durando of the Montgomery Advertiser and Andrew Dys and Tobie Nell Perkins of The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.) tied for second.                                                                                                                        

Sports editors in Division D submitted 31 Breaking News entries. 

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. Marc Weiszer, Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, 53 points (2 first-place votes)

T2. Bennett Durando, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, 46 points (1 first-place vote)

T2. Andrew Dys and Tobie Nell Perkins, The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), 46 points (2 first-place votes)

4. Zach Abolverdi, Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, 40 points (1 first-place vote)

5. Brett Vito, Denton (Tex.) Record-Chronicle, 30 points

6. Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record (Rockaway, N.J.), 28 points

7. David Thompson, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, 27 points

T8. Glenn Guilbeau, The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, La.), 26 points

T8. Chris Singleton, Houma (La.) Today, 26 points

10. Matt Schuckman, Muddy River Sports (Quincy, Ill.), 8 points

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