Tonganoxie’s newspaper won the Sweepstakes Award for Division II during Friday’s Awards of Excellence ceremony at the Meridian Center in Newton.

Newspapers from across the state submitted entries in various categories published in 2021 earlier this year. Members of the Minnesota Press Association judged the entries, with winners in those categories being announced in the spring.

Newspapers receive points for first- second- and third-place finishes in each category. Those numbers are tallied and the overall Sweepstakes winner is determined.

Those winners were revealed at the end of the awards ceremony Friday, with The Mirror winning in Division II (Circulation 600-1,100). There are seven divisions overall.

“The Mirror has had a strong history of winning the Sweepstakes Award, but it’s also been a few years since our last one,” said Mirror editor Shawn F. Linenberger. “It was a tremendous feeling being able to bring another back to Tonganoxie.”

The Mirror earned 34 awards in this year’s AOE contest. Of those awards, 15 were first-place entries, 11 were second-place entries and eight were third-place entries.

One of the awards was for all divisions. That award was third place among all divisions and was for the community service project category.

The Mirror’s entry was about its live-streaming of community events, such as candidate forums for election races and the various Tonganoxie parades.

Stories, photos and other items published in 2021 were eligible for AOE awards.

The Mirror swept the sports story, feature photo, photo package and headline writing categories, winning first, second and third place in those areas. The newspaper also won two awards in these categories: news story, sports photo, sports feature story, seniors story, education story, feature photo and feature story.,

A member of The Mirror’s staff since 2001, Linenberger handles most news and sports stories, as well as photography and layout and design of the newspaper each week. Linenberger also utilizes contributed content from community members, including regular columns.

Former Mirror sports editor Justin Nutter, who periodically fills in with freelance sports stories and photos, won first place in the sports photo category. He captured the Tonganoxie High football team coming onto the field with American flags in observance of the 9-11 anniversary.

The Mirror’s last Sweepstakes Award came in 2011.