Members of “The Houstonian” racked up 16 awards at the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Convention this weekend in College Station.
The convention featured two days of on-site competitions – where “The Houstonian” picked up three awards – a job fair with approximately 10 regional newspapers (including the Associated Press) and an awards ceremony for material completed in 2007.
Senior David Hartnett won first place in on-site Print Sportswriting, Senior Daniel Flores won third place for Feature Photo and Junior Rachael Gleason won third place Print Newswriting. On-site competitions were held at the convention on Thursday and Friday among all universities. Participants were required to complete assignments on deadline.
The main awards ceremony was held Saturday. Individual members won 13 awards in a variety of contests for Division II universities.
Freshman Thomas Boydston won four awards in photography contests: three honorable mentions in Feature Photo, Information Graphic and Sports Feature Photo respectively and third place in Sports Action Photo.
Gleason won three awards in design categories: an honorable mention in Ad Design, third place in Page One Design and second place in Op/Ed Design.
Gleason and graduate Katelyn Murphy also won first place in News Story.
Members of “The Houstonian” won in every sports contest under the leadership of Sports Editor Christi Laney.
Laney won second place in Sports Page Design. Hartnett won first place in Sports Feature Story. Kenny Bybee won third place in Sports News Story and junior Kevin Jukkola placed second in Sports Column.
Jukkola also won first place in Critical Review.
“The Houstonian Staff” won second place for an editorial about the Virginia Tech shooting, which was written by Kristin Edwards.
Seven staff members and Mike Blackman, faculty advisor, represented the newspaper and school in College Station.
Last year, members won 15 awards in a variety of contests.