The sports staff of The Oklahoman won first place in the Division B projects category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
The Oklahoman’s winning entry was a series of stories on the final year of state basketball tournaments at State Fair Arena, which served as the host site for championships in Oklahoma for 60 years.
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.
The Oklahoman will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 20 entries in the Division B projects 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 84 total pieces in the category, in addition to supplemental material. 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. Staff; The Oklahoman (4) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
2. Paul Skrbina and Keith Sharon; The Tennessean (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
3. Gerry Dulac, Jason Mackey, Keith Barnes, Anya Sostek, Roberta Burkhart; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
4. Lee Sanderlin, Danielle Allentuck, Paul Mancano; The Baltimore Banner 1 | 2 | 3
5. Scott Fowler, Theoden Janes, Jeff Siner, Diamond Vences, Lydia Craver; Charlotte Observer 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
6. Dana Hunsinger Benbow; IndyStar (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
7. Noah White, Tim O’Shei; The Buffalo News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
8. Childs Walker, Sam Cohn, Kiersten Hacker; The Baltimore Sun 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
9. Kyle Fredrickson; The Denver Gazette 1 | 2 | 3
10. Bill Hartlep, Chuck Curti, Paul Schofield, Chris Harlan, Tim Benz; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
