The Pitt News wins national pacemaker awards

Five Pitt News staff members received awards from the Associated Collegiate Press national journalism competition this weekend.

Four Pitt students and one Pitt alumnus won awards in the categories of 2015 Story of the Year, Spot News Photo of the Year, Sports Story of the Year and Multimedia Story of the Year. In addition to The Pitt News, the ACP finalists included student journalists from The Yale Daily News, The Temple News from Temple University and the Indiana Daily Student from Indiana University, among hundreds of other schools. The competition evaluated pieces from the 2014-2015 academic year.

The ACP grants individual awards annually to honor students’ work in collegiate journalism. This weekend, the ACP announced the award at its ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas.

Former visual editor Theo Schwarz won first place in the spot news photography category for his photo “Not One More” from the Black Lives Matter protest in December on Pitt’s campus. Schwarz is currently a photography intern at Pittsburgh City Paper.

Assistant news editor Elizabeth Lepro won third place in the feature story category for her piece “Home sweet zone: City officials crack down on overcrowding” from March 16, 2015.

Senior staff writer Jasper Wilson won third place in the sports story category for his piece “Pit(t) stop: Former Panther wrestlers find work in NASCAR” from Feb. 18, 2015.

Multimedia senior staff member Mason Lazarcheff and Pitt alum Nate Smith won an honorable mention in the multimedia news category for their “Candle Light Vigil for UNC Muslim Victims” video from Feb. 16, 2015.