Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Entry Title: Kristin Smart Entry Credit: Catherine Allen, Lauren Boyer, Madison Bellah, Abigail O'Branovich, Fauve Koontz, Ava Kershner Judge Comment: Easily the most well-rounded entry in this category. The combination of reporting, editing, and thoughtfulness on the topic lifted this entry above the rest.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: University of California, Los Angeles Entry Title: Campus Queries Entry Credit: Victoria Li, Andrew Panosian, Shruti Iyer, Natalie Weber, Maanas Oruganti Judge Comment: A strong premise and good writing and reporting, along with a dose of novelty, helped this entry rise above the rest.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: UC Berkeley Entry Title: UC Lecturers fight for contract Entry Credit: Mallika Seshadri, Kavya Gupta, Lianna Leung, Winnie Lau, Luis Saldana, Maria Young Judge Comment: This is strong meat-and-potatoes reporting with good writing as well, which helped separate it from the rest of the field. The stories are also spotlessly edited.
Competition Comment: Many schools approached this category in novel and new ways, with different levels of depth also. I wish I had more than three spots to award in this category, because there are more than three entries that deserve recognition. Ultimately, the Mustang News' comprehensive coverage of an arrest in a 25-year-old murder of a student carried the contest, hitting all the elements and going the extra mile for a series of stories that digs deep into the case, its past, the families, and those affected. There was a lot of strong reporting in this category and a fair amount of novelty too. Strong and engaging writing and consistency separated the winners from the rest of the group.
