Journalists in the USA TODAY Network in Texas were recently honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors in its annual contest for top sports journalism from 2024, with The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Wichita Falls Times-Record and Corpus Christi Caller-Times garnering four national awards.
The Times-Record and Caller-Times newspapers compete in the D Division, comprised of small news organizations. The Avalanche-Journal competes in the C division. Judging recently took place in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, supplemented by off-site judging by sports editors and journalists from across the country.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal won two awards, with the Wichita Falls Record-Times and Caller Times each securing one.
Nathan Giese, who covers Texas Tech men’s basketball and aids in high school coverage, placed in the top 10 nationally for his event coverage of Stanford transfer NiJaree Canady signing with the Red Raider softball team. Giese also detailed how the Texas Tech softball team landed a prized recruit.
Along with Giese, then-photo editor Annie Rice garnered a top 10 award for sports feature photo. She provided a photo which showed Amarillo High’s Braden Hausen becoming emotional after the team’s loss against Lancaster in a boys Class 5A state semifinal on March 7, 2024, at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Times-Record photographer Naomi Skinner won a top 10 award for sports action photo. Caller-Times photographer Angela Piazza achieved the same accolade in the sports action photo category.
Writing and photography categories are ranked from 1 to 10 by a panel of national judges, and the individual winners are announced in late March and early April. Individual category winners are invited to receive their award at APSE’s national summer convention, scheduled for June 26-28 in Minneapolis.