Leader staff win state awards

First place “Best Sports Action Photo” -- Jensen Lincks

Once again, writers from The Salem Leader-Democrat brought home awards from the Hoosier State Press Association during the organization’s annual awards banquet.
Stories and photos from May 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019, were eligible for the contest and Staff Writers Kate Wehlann and Josh Lewis brought home seven awards.
Wehlann won a first place in Division 2 (nondaily papers with a circulation of 2,500 or more) for a story about the sentencing of Joshuah Rainbolt following the murder of his roommate, Blake Box-Skinner, in 2017. He was sentenced in May 2018 and was given 60 years, with five years suspended. She also received a third-place award for her story from September 2018, “Being the Hands and Feet,” recounting the journey of volunteers from the Hoosiers Help organization to North Carolina to deliver supplies following Hurricane Florence, and a second-place award for the two-part story on the history of the prescription drug crisis, called “The Pill Problem,” which appeared in 2018’s two addiction magazines. She also received a third-place award for a set of photographs she took and titled “War Birds,” combining the names of Salem’s and Eastern High School’s marching band shows from 2018, which they competed with at the ISSMA Scholastic Band Competition last fall.
Lewis entered photography categories, taking first in the Best Sports Action Photo category with a picture he called “Safe,” of Jensen Lincks on the Lincks Clothing & Shoes Campbellsburg Youth League team, sliding into home, his tongue out in concentration.
Lewis took third place in Best Sports Feature photo of two Eastern baseball players embracing midair during a game. His third photo, which took first place in Best Sports Feature showed Eastern baseball team member Jacob Stewart tossing his helmet in defeat after a loss as the winning team celebrated in the background. “I have won first for Best Sports Action and Sports Feature photos in the past, but this year was the first year that I won both,” said Lewis. “I compete against some really talented journalists and photographers sotowinbothisafeatthatIam rather proud of.”

Please Login for Premium Content

Site Login Help

For current subscribers to The Salem Leader and The Salem Democrat, you can login to the site using the following information:

Username: Please use your full email address associated with your account
Password: Please use your last name. Passwords are case sensitive, so please capitalize your last name (eg: Smith)