Will Hobson, Liz Clarke, Beth Reinhard and Dalton Bennett of The Washington Post won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2020 contest in Investigative.
They will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2021 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug. 18.
Nancy Armour, Kenny Jacoby and Jessica Luther of USA Today finished second and John D’Anna of The Arizona Republic was third.
An Investigative entry is judged based on the entry’s enterprise, initiative, documentation, resourcefulness and original reporting in uncovering newsworthy and significant facts and developments that otherwise might not have been reported. Impact and aftermath of the work should be considered.
Sports editors in all categories submitted 24 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 (or in four categories, a Top 5) as a group, and each of those judges ranked the finalists individually. A second set of judges in each category then also ranked those finalists. 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. (For Top 5s, first place was worth five points, second place four, etc.).
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. Will Hobson, Liz Clarke, Beth Reinhard and Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 54 points, 2 first-place votes
2. Nancy Armour, Kenny Jacoby and Jessica Luther, USA Today 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 52 points, 2 first-place votes
3. John D’Anna, The Arizona Republic 1, 2, 3, 4, 45 points
4. Jenny Vrentas, Sports Illustrated, 44 points, 1 first-place vote
5. Bob Hohler, The Boston Globe 1, 2, 3, 4, 28 points
6. Adam Friedman, The Jackson Sun 1, 2, 3, 27 points
7. Nathan Fenno, Los Angeles Times 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 25 points
8. Scott M. Reid, Southern California News Group 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 22 points, 1 first-place vote
9. Pete Thamel, Yahoo Sports 1, 2, 18 points
10. Adam Sparks, The Tennessean 1, 2, 3, 15 points
