Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Cloquet - Pine Journal Entry Title: Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey program celebrates 20 years Entry Credit: Jamie Lund Judge Comment: This feature rose above the rest with its smooth flow, description and narrative. This presents a nice historical recap of a storied program.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Blue Earth - Faribault County Register Entry Title: Aasen's legacy continues on today Entry Credit: Kevin Mertens Judge Comment: A coach has been gone for a quarter of century, and the memories still remain for those who know this coach. Nice touch, nice use of quotes.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Blooming Prairie Steele County Times Entry Title: Gridiron Attack Entry Credit: Rick Bussler Judge Comment: Good lede, nice article. I felt you told a good story.
Competition Comment: What a competitive category. I had to re-read a number of articles, and it was still tough.
Some notes to digest. The layout also makes the article pop out, and some of the layouts desperately need re-working. Copy is too crowded, photos mashed together. Also, reporters need to indicate which article I'm judging. At least three reporters had written three to four articles on the same page.
The top articles had well-developed lede paragraphs, good description, better use of the active voice. They were smoother, not as choppy. The top articles had a better command of sentence structure.
