XENIA – Xenia Daily Gazette and Fairborn Daily Herald managing editor Scott Halasz won two awards in the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors’ 2021 newspaper contest.

Halasz finished second in the Best Feature Writer category and third in the Best Sports Feature Writer category.

Stories entered for best feature writer were Champion of bike paths remembered, a story on Ed Dressler; On track, a story about Dekan Ekpo being accepted to Notre Dame law school; Local Jeopardy contestant had a blast, a story about Beavercreek’s Hari Parameswaran’s appearance on Jeopardy; and Tackling the tics, a story about Xenia’s Dakota Wagner and Tourette Syndrome.

Stories for best sports feature writer were Bulked up, Caupp a force for Xenia, a story about Xenia basketball player Matthew Caupp; Hines hoping to jump her way to Columbus, a story about Greeneview’s Laney Hines’ track success; Koning puts name in CHS record book, a story about Cedarville’s Trent Koning scoring his 1,000th point; and Michalski continues improbable run toward Olympics, a story about Xenia’s Daniel Michalski and his attempt to qualify for the Olympics.

Forty-eight daily newspapers submitted 1,302 entries in the contest, which featured news and sports stories, features, editorials, columns, graphics and photos from 2021. Xenia Daily Gazette and Fairborn Daily Herald entries were submitted in Division I, which is for newspapers with circulations up to 7,999 and contains the most newspapers.

Entries were judged by editors from The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press, Division V; The Grand Haven (Michigan) Tribune, Division IV; The McComb Daily (Michigan), Division III; Mount Pleasant (Michigan) Morning Sun, and MLive Media Group, Division II; The Holland (Michigan) Sentinel and the Alpena (Michigan) News, Division I.

The awards were announced during a banquet in Columbus Sunday.