The University News was recognized as Best in State by the Missouri College Media Association this past weekend in Lee’s Summit, Mo. Several staff members also received numerous individual awards at the two-day MCMA conference held April 9-10.

The University News received first place in its division, Division 1, which includes schools such as University of Missouri-Columbia, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Missouri-St. Louis, University of Missouri-Kansas City and Missouri State, among others. Best in State is decided based on a comparison of the first-place winners from each of the four different divisions of college newspapers.

Best in State is an honor that The UNews has not held for 20 years. Winning the Best in State award is external “validation for a staff that works really hard. They are all full-time students, on top of putting together [a newspaper] each week,” Editor-in-Chief Kat Patke said.

Three full issues of The UNews were submitted in consideration for this award. These issues are judged on the layout, news stories, strength of writing and editorials, student and community interest, and several other factors.

“They really look at the whole package, and we were up against a strong field,” Patke said.

For The UNews staff, the Best in State win is a starting point for earning national awards, according to Newspaper Production Coordinator Jason Young. Young said he believes that the staff is more than capable of obtaining state and national awards.

These awards reflect how far The University News staff has come in the past few years, he said.

“The students have rebuilt this organization into a quality program that the staff and the Saint Louis University community can and should be proud of,” he said.

Sixteen individual awards were won by staff members in the categories of News Writing; Investigative Reporting; In-Depth Reporting; Regular Column; News, Feature and Sports Photography; Entertainment Review; Sports Writing; Sports Column; Editorials; and Special Section are determined through contest submissions to the MCMA for specific categories of photography and news writing. Each collegiate newspaper is allowed to submit no more than three entries per category.

The list of individual awards includes:
Investigative Reporting:
Kelley Dunn (honorable mention),
Kat Patke (honorable mention)

In-Depth Reporting:
Kelley Dunn, Adam Tamburin, Ian Darnell (third place)
Kelley Dunn (honorable mention)

Regular Column:
Sheri McCord (third place)
Roberta Singer (honorable mention)

News Writing:
Kat Patke, Jonathan Ernst, Matt Wilhelm (honorable mention)

Entertainment Review:
Will Holston (first place)

News Photography:
Ryan Giacomino (first place)

Feature Photography:
Ryan Giacomino (third place)

Sports Photography:
Ryan Giacomino (honorable mention)

Editorials:
Sarah Hale (second place)

Sports Writing:
Chris Ackels (honorable mention)
Bobby Schindler (honorable mention)

Sports Column:
Derrick Neuner (third place)

Special Section:
Bobby Schindler (third place)