Topeka Capital-Journal reporters and photographer win awards for work in 2021
The Topeka Capital-Journal received seven awards Friday at the Kansas Press Association's annual Awards of Excellence ceremony.
Chief photojournalist/creative director Evert Nelson won three, including state photographer of the year.
Statehouse reporter Jason Tidd and trending news reporter Tim Hrenchir each received two, including a first-place award for Tidd.
Winners were announced at the KPA's annual convention in Newton.
The Capital-Journal competed in Daily Division VII, which is open to the state's largest daily newspapers and news websites, with circulations of 5,601 or more. The works involved were all published in 2021.
The photographer of the year competition won by Nelson was open to photographers from all divisions.
Nelson's winning entry included photos he took showing a variety of news events including the Frito-Lay protests, a restaurant opening, recovering COVID-19 patients and dogs enjoying a swim among others.
Nelson took second in Division VII's sports photo category with a photo of University of Kansas basketball player Christian Braun dunking against Nevada, and third in its general news category with a photo taken during a hot-air balloon ride over Topeka.
A judge wrote of the Braun photo: "Great photo and nicely framed to show the symmetry of the crowd, the banners, the scoreboard and the Nevada player on each side. Great action and a really fun picture to look at."
Tidd placed first in Division VII's sports story category with an article about how Fort Scott Community College, amid a shroud of secrecy, discontinued its once-proud football program after poor on-field performances, high personnel turnover and the death of a player who reportedly suffered heat stroke during a practice.
"I enjoyed seeing all of the years come out on paper and in great detail," a judge wrote. "Every paragraph was detailed and made me want to read more of the story."
Tidd placed second in Division VII's health story category with his article about how a surge in COVID-19 cases prompted a key health care leader to issue what he likened as being "a tornado warning to our community" over COVID. "We are in trouble," that official said.
A judge wrote, "Alarm bells clanged all the way through Jason Tidd's story, from a hospital leader's raw warnings about a 'death march of the unvaccinated,' frightening data about child deaths, the impact of the pandemic on hospital staff and nursing school graduations."
Hrenchir placed second in Division VII's feature story category with an article published just before her execution telling the story of former east-central Kansas resident Lisa Montgomery, who would die by lethal injection in January 2021 at age 52 for the 2004 strangulation murder in northwest Missouri of expectant mother Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
Montgomery abducted Stinnett's baby after cutting her out of her womb, then tried to pass the infant off as her own. The baby survived.
A judge described Hrenchir's article as being an "excellent, balanced, thorough piece of long-form journalism that made me question my position on this story (of which I was broadly aware)."
Hrenchir placed third in the category for best story originating from a public notice, which was open to all divisions, with his article highlighting the raze-or-repair debate regarding three aging and deteriorating buildings in downtown Topeka.
The buildings were once owned by Nick Chiles, a prominent Black Topeka newspaper editor who died in 1929.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka Capital-Journal reporters and photographer win KPA awards
