(15 entries)

Judge: Jeff Robinson, sports editor, Bozeman Daily Chronicle Robinson has won top awards for sports reporting , sports feature reporting and sports column writing from the Idaho Press Club, the Utah-Idaho-Spokane Associated Press and the Montana Newspaper Association. He has been with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle since 1995.

First place
RON SEIBEL
The Yuma Daily Sun
"Baseball inspires cancer survivor to finish School"
"Sometimes good stories tell themselves and in this case the writer does a nice job of letting the story flow. While the lead could have been stronger (it actually seems buried five paragraphs in), the imagery and detail complement each other. The writer does a good job of pacing the story to keep readers interested and finishes strong."

Second place
RANDY HUGGLER
Casa Grande Dispatch
"Central's Ida Dotson overcomes handicap to star on hard wood" "Great lead. It's enough to keep reader interested in venturing further into the story, but the writer wasn't able to match that strong start. Story could have done without the tongue-in-cheek jokes about the subject's deafness by maybe trimming the fat from the quotes."

Third place<br> JIM POWERS
Ahwatukee Foothills News
"Rattay chooses Tennessee"
"A decent lead and lots of good information, but story drug a little at the start. The writer would have been well served to pare down some quotes that were redundant to what they had previously written."