Staff reports
The Lancaster News brought home 31 awards, and its three sister newspapers another 27, from Saturday's S.C. Press Association annual meeting in Columbia.
Among the Lancaster News staff's first-place honors were best election and political coverage, best special edition for its Honoring Veterans section, and best reporting-in-depth for coverage marking the death and legacy of Mayor Joe Shaw.
"There was never a dull moment in Lancaster this year," a contest judge wrote, "from the death of a longtime mayor to charges of plagiarism against a local candidate. Fortunately for Lancaster residents, The Lancaster News had exhaustive coverage of these things and a myriad of other local and national political issues."
Publisher Susan Rowell congratulated the news staff for an outstanding year. "I am extremely proud of the quality of community journalism we provide our readers," Rowell said. "Being recognized by the SCPA is much-deserved praise for the entire news team's hard work."
The newspaper won third place for general excellence, competing in the 2016 contest against other papers that publish two to three times a week.
Nine Lancaster News staffers won Individual awards.
Mandy Catoe, in her first year at the newspaper, won two first-place awards for beat reporting – government and business – and a third place for faith reporting.Athena Redmond, the paper's lead designer, won first places for photo-page design and inside-page design and third places for her portfolio of front-page designs and a single feature-page design. Kyle Camp won both second- and third-place design awards for his business and education pages, as well as a writing award – second place for best short story.
Other visual awards went to Reece Murphy, whose photo of firefighters at a massive Indian Land house fire won first place for spot-news photo, and Greg Summers, who won second place in general news photography for his image from a candlelight vigil for murder victim Yusuf Abdus-Salaam.
Murphy also won a first-place writing award for his coverage of the courts beat. And Summers won three writing awards – second place in enterprise reporting for stories about the local shortage of volunteer firefighters, and second place for both government and faith-beat reporting.
Sports editor Robert Howey won three awards, including first place in sports features for his story about Buford High School track athlete John Elliott. Howey won second place for spot sports story for his account of the Buford softball team's state championship. And he won third place for column writing.
Chris Sardelli, who left the paper last spring after eight years, won four writing awards. "The Challenge of a Lifetime," his week-long look at Buford resident Wesley Dry's Appalachian Trail journey, won first place for a series of articles. He also won second place for investigative reporting, second place for education-beat reporting and third place for profile writing.
Summer intern Kayland Hagwood, a junior at the University of South Carolina, earned third place for police-beat reporting.
Editor Brian Melton won first place in short-story writing for his memories of Christmas eves at his grandmother-in-law's house, and third place for opinion-page columns and for feature headlines.
Other Landmark newspapers
Carolina Gateway, which covers Lancaster County's Panhandle, won four awards.
Chris Sardelli won first place in investigative reporting for his coverage of the county's economic development conflicts.
Editor Jane Alford won third place for sports page design portfolio. Freelancer Julie Graham won third place for feature photo. The Gateway staff won third place in entertainment sections for the Indian Land Fall Festival.
The Chester News & Reporter won 19 awards.
For the second year in a row, Editor Travis Jenkins took home one of the SCPA's top honors, the Montgomery/Shurr Freedom of Information Award, for coverage of a Senate candidate's SLED investigation and the dismissal of the county school superintendent. Jenkins also won first place for sports enterprise reporting, second place for sports columns and food writing, and third place for investigative reporting.
Jenkins and James McBee shared first and third place honors for sports videos.
Jenkins and Brian Garner shared second place for reporting-in-depth, and Garner won third place for series of articles and both second and third place for humorous photo.
Nancy Parsons won second place for her community-beat reporting and for her lifestyle-feature writing. She won second place for online photo gallery and third place for photo story.
Freelancer Bill Marion won third-place awards for sports action photo and personality portrait.
The News & Reporter also won third place awards for its opinion page and political coverage.
The Pageland Progressive won four awards.
Editor Kimberly Harrington won third place for features page design, and she and reporter Vanessa Brewer-Tyson won third place for breaking-news reporting.
Freelance photographer Kevin Smith won second place for general news photo and third for humorous photo.
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