Meg Linehan, Katie Strang, Steph Yang and Pablo Maurer of The Athletic won first place in the 2021 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Investigative category for their reporting on abuse, sexual coercion and institutional betrayal in the NWSL and women’s soccer.
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.
Molly Hensley-Clancy and Steven Goff of The Washington Post finished second, and Nancy Armour, Kenny Jacoby, Jessica Luther and Dan Wolken of USA Today Sports took third.
Sports editors from all four divisions submitted 24 Investigative entries. The contest is open to APSE members.
The judges for Investigative considered an entry’s enterprise, initiative, documentation, resourcefulness and original reporting in uncovering newsworthy and significant facts and developments that otherwise might not have been reported.
Contest chair Jorge Rojas and fellow APSE officers Gary Potosky, Naila-Jean Meyers and Ed Reed prepared the entries.
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. The Athletic — Meg Linehan, Katie Strang, Steph Yang, Pablo Maurer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 58 points (5 first-pace votes)
2. The Washington Post — Molly Hensley-Clancy and Steven Goff 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 45 points
3. USA TODAY Sports — Nancy Armour, Kenny Jacoby, Jessica Luther, Dan Wolken 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 40 points
4. ABC News — Pete Madden, Cho Park and Ryan Smith 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 37 Points
5. Sports Illustrated — Jenny Vrentas 1, 2 31 Points
6. The Record (Bergen, N.J.) — Abbott Koloff, Jean Rimbach 1, 2, 3, 4 28 points
7. The Advocate/The Times-Picayune (Baton Rouge/New Orleans) — Andrea Gallo and Brooks Kubena 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 26 points
8. The Buffalo News — Jason Wolf 1, 2, 3 25 points
9. The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.) — Bret McCormick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 24 points (1 first-place vote)
10. The New York Times — Kevin Draper 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 16 points
