By Jackson Smith
Web Editor

The Clackamas Print won 14 awards at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association newspaper contest, beating out last year’s awards by one.

There were five first-place winners from The Print this year.

Morgan Armitage, the current sports editor for The Print, won first place for feature stories with her story “Art Speaks! At least, it does now.”

Armitage showing off awards.

Armitage won three total awards at the event, showing out for The Print with not just her skills in journalism, but writing as a whole.

“It was really exciting to be recognized as a writer, and a journalist,” Armitage said. 

Armitage was initially surprised that her story won first place, as it was her first ever written piece for The Print. She comes from a background in literature, often finding herself writing fiction and storytelling.

“I thought it was cool because realizing that the mix of fiction actually does give me a leg to stand on in journalism,” said Armitage, who plans to transfer to Lewis & Clark College for fall term. “I have storytelling aspects and abilities that I can take things that are real life, non fiction.”

Gabriel Elmosleh, the current co-editor-in-chief, won first place for spot news photo with his photo for his story “Auto restoration students, faculty, sue college.”

Elmosleh’s first-place photo. Photo by Gabriel Elmosleh

Elmosleh said, “I’m really proud of the work everyone did this year, and I’ve always had high expectations for everyone, and even then I think everyone surpassed those expectations.” 

Evan Tichenor, one of last year’s editors-in-chief, won first place for sports photo for a photo of CCC runners in the story “Clackamas track and field sets facility records at Corban University” and a first-place award for overall photography.

Tichenor’s first-place photo. Photo by Evan Tichenor

Ending off the first-place awards, The Clackamas Print won best website, creating an annual tradition having won first place the last few years.

There were seven winners for second-place awards.

Armitage won second place for best columnist and second place for sports writing with her story “College athletics are bone-crushingly intense – literally.”

Jackson Arterberry, the former audio & visuals editor, won second place for best review with his “Minecraft” movie review, “From blocks to big screen; ‘A Minecraft Movie’ builds children’s imagination” and second place in overall photography.

Trey Copeland, a former staff writer, won second place for best feature photo with his photo for the story “Students roll with it in Board Game club.”

Ending off the second-place awards, The Clackamas Print won second place in design and second place in house ad with a video made by Aowyn Shaver, the former web editor.

There were two winners for third-place awards.

Tomas Alonso, the former co-arts & culture editor, won third place for best review with his story “Theater department slays with ‘She Kills Monsters.’”

Ending off the third-place winners, Elmosleh and The Print’s current copy editor, Corban Stanton, won third place for best series with their coverage of the federal government’s policies trickling down to CCC.

The Clackamas Print shows off awards won at the ONPA Collegiate Day Newspaper contest at Linn-Benton Community College. Photo taken by Olivia Hendry Young of the Portland State Vanguard

The other current co-editor-in-chief, Jacob Graves, was unable to make it to the awards, but he had words of encouragement for his team nonetheless.

“Me and Gabe, we just kind of want to elevate everybody’s skillset and just help everybody out the best way that we can,” said Graves. “We’re proud of the work everyone puts in day and night, and this really shows with the amount of awards that we won.” 

The awards were presented during Collegiate Day and hosted by Laurie Hieb of the ONPA, and held at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany on May 15. 

The event featured three speakers before the awards ceremony, those being Tom Hallman Jr., a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Karl Maasdam, an editorial, portrait, and commercial photographer and Elliot Njus, the current Managing Editor for The Oregonian.

The Clackamas Print will look to improve further next year, striving to beat this year’s 14 awards.