Tim Benz of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Reivew won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category C Long Feature.
Benz will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.
John Blau of the Herald-Times and finished second and Michael Lananna of The State tied for second.
A Long Feature entry in Category C is a feature story that is more than 1,000 words. This entry is what we commonly call “Enterprise” in our newsrooms.
Sports editors in Category C Long Feature submitted 65 stories. 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 10th-place finishers will receive frameable certificates.
The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries, and voting results.
1. Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 42 points, 1 first-place vote
2. Jon Blau, The Herald-Times, 40 points, 2 first-place votes
3. Michael Lananna, The State, 40 points
4. Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette, 39 points, 1 first-place vote
5. Chris Carlson, Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard, 38 points, 1 first-place vote
6. Andrew John, The Desert Sun, 37 points, 1 first-place vote
7. Taylor Eldridge, The Wichita Eagle, 30 points
8. Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record, 24 points
9. Dave Southorn, Idaho Statesman, 22 points
10. Mark Berman, The Roanoke Times, 18 points
