Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Category A Beat Writing.
Dellenger will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.
J. Brady McCollough of the Los Angeles Times finished second and Dana O’Neil of The Athletic was third.
A Beat Writing entry is a series of articles by a single author (can be more than one on the Breaking News entry only) that shows authoritative, newsy and innovative coverage of a beat.
Sports editors in Category A submitted 60 entries. 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. Ross Dellenger, Sports Illustrated 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 56 points, 2 first-place votes
2. J. Brady McCollough, Los Angeles Times 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 55 points, 2 first-place votes
3. Dana O’Neil, The Athletic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 50 points
T4. Susan Slusser, The San Francisco Chronicle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 47 points, 1 first-place vote
T4. Billy Witz, The New York Times 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 47 points, 1 first-place vote
6. Alex Speier, The Boston Globe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 43 points
7. Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 42 points, 1 first-place vote
8. Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 37 points
9. Pete Thamel, Yahoo Sports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 33 points
10. Chandler Rome, Houston Chronicle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 30 points
