Cedars wins top state award, 6 categories in regional Society of Professional Journalists contest

The Ohio News Media Association and the Society of Professional Journalists has recognized Cedars as one of the top college student newspapers in the region.

At the ONMA annual convention, Cedars won the Frank E. Deaner Award for Excellence in Collegiate Journalism for the seventh straight year. Cedars competed against eight other schools in Division B for schools under 10,000 in enrollment. In the SPJ Region 4 (Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania) competition, Cedars won six categories and had three other finalists in the under-10,000 enrollment division. The category winners are entered in the national contest against winners from the other 11 regions. Cedars previously won a national award for in-depth reporting in 2014.

SPJ winners:

• General news reporting: Breanna Beers for ‘Bridging’ the Gap.
• In-depth reporting: Alex Hentschel, Breanna Beers, Zach Krauss, Daniel Garcia for five pieces from the global refugee crisis project.
• Feature writing: Callahan Jones for Super-Fly Struggles.
• General column writing: Alex Hentschel for Just Sayin’ columns Loving the Sojourner, Women & Jesus & the Church and Things You Learn from Living Abroad.
• Sports writing: Tim Miller for Career-ending Injury Doesn’t Hinder Bain’s Legacy.
• Feature photography: Lydia Wolterman for Getting Started Weekend.

SPJ finalists:

• In-depth reporting: Breanna Beers and Alex Hentschel for Gun Violence in the United States.
• Sports writing: Josh Stevens for Lord Twins Excel On and Off the Field.
• Feature photography: Emily Sulka for Pause for Paws.

ONMA awards:

• Photojournalism: first place by Naomi Harward and Lydia Wolterman.
• In-depth reporting: second place for the global refugee crisis project.
• Design: second place.
• News coverage: third place.
• Arts and entertainment writing: third place by Katie Milligan for the Columbus Crossing Borders Project and a student spotlight profile, and Naomi Harward for The Tattoo Project.
• Sports coverage: third place by Tim Miller, Joshua Woolverton and Gwendolyn Peterson.
• Best website: third place.