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Mirror recieves Kansas Press Association awards for its 2014 work

By Staff | Apr 22, 2015

The Mirror newspaper picked up several awards at Saturday’s Kansas Press Association Convention in Junction City.

Newspapers from across the state compete in the Awards of Excellence competition. Members of the Washington Press Association from Washington state judged the many daily and weekly newspaper entries.

The Mirror won 10 awards in non-daily division II, which is the middle-sized division among three for the non-daily newspapers.

Tonganoxie placed first in two categories: sports feature writing and best front page.

Former sports editor Justin Nutter’s story about former Tonganoxie educator Phil Lobb won the sports feature writing award. Lobb died last year.

The Mirror’s front page that focused on Tonganoxie High’s graduation was the best in the category. The Mirror’s page designer, Melissa Treolo, who also designs pages for the Shawnee, Bonner Springs and Baldwin City newspapers laid out the front page.

The winner also receives an oversized print of the front page.

At Saturday’s event, The Mirror received recognition for several second- and third-place awards as well.

News editor Shawn F. Linenberger’s story about a winery and bed and breakfast north of McLouth won second in the local business category, while his feature on then-THS senior Austin Harris running for a state representative seat won second in the government category.

In the religion category, Linenberger’s feature about Tonganoxie United Methodist Church’s “flat Jesus” efforts received third place, while the newspaper overall won second place in news and writing excellence.

Linenberger’s story on Honey Creek Disposal Service’s new recycling center venture with Hamm took third in the best environmental story category, while Nutter’s photo of Travis Woods pitching for the THS baseball team also took third in the sports photo category.

In the best newspaper website category, tonganoxiemirror.com finished third, with the judge’s comment being “very close competition.”

The newspaper with the most points overall wins the sweepstakes award, which The Mirror has won several times in the past 12 years.

The Washington County News took home the sweepstakes award this year in non-daily division II.

Last weekend’s convention took place at the Junction City Courtyard by Marriott.