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The staff of the Trail received an Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers national Pacemaker award, announced Saturday, Nov. 6 in Nashville, Tenn. Only 10 two-year papers nationally were selected as finalists with seven chosen for the Pacemaker. A total of 25 papers, both two-year and four-year, received the Pacemaker for the 2003-2004 academic year. David M. Hillshafer and Jay Acker served as co-editors for last year’s Trail.
In addition, NWC photography graduate Tricia Auger received a national second place for a fine arts photograph. Her image appeared in NWC’s Visualize This visual arts magazine.
Tom Rolnicki, the executive director of ACP, calls the awards the Pulitizer Prize of college publications. A complete list of the winners and a gallery of front pages is available at: http://www.studentpress.org/acp/winners/npm04.html
“The awards recognize the achievements, dedication and hard work by talented students at Northwest College,” said newspaper adviser and journalism instructor Dennis Davis. The Trail, which publishes weekly, received the award based on entries that included coverage of the NWC wrestling team’s national championship, the deployment of NWC students in the National Guard to Iraq and the March 30 fire in the Bridger Hall residence hall.
The four Trail staff members at the national convention also got to see Shania Twain and Diane Sawyer in person on “Good Morning America” Friday, Nov. 5 in Nashville.
The Northwest Trail tied for second place in general excellence in a regional competition sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Media Association.
NWC also swept television awards for two-year colleges.
Among two-year colleges with enrollment less than 5,000, the Trail tied for second in general excellence. The Trail placed third for overall design.
In individual awards for Trail staff members, Garth Yeates won the sports column category as well as second for sports news and third for sports feature.
Lee Tortorelli won the sports photo category, Will Woody won the news photo competition and Tiffany Bertsch placed first for a photo story. Bertsch also took third for a feature photo and an honorable mention for editorial writing.
Woody, Kim Ostermyer and Darcie Jones won for single or two-page design.
Kayla Stewart placed third for feature writing. Mari Tande took third for investigative/interpretive reporting for a story on student drinking.
Blake Neubert placed second for an editorial cartoon.
Apparently the only two-year college competing in the 14-state region in the television category, Northwest won the general excellence award. Bertsch took first for her video news story on the cheese house. Collin Bennion and Matt Johnson won for their feature story on last fall's choral sampler concert. Bertsch, Dennis Goldberg, Josh Baugher and Jasen Hansen won for a documentary video project.
The Trail's online publication by Amiee Raba took an honorable mention in a category that included both two-year and four-year schools.
The association made its awards on March 30, 2002 for entries from 2001 during its annual convention in Grand Junction, Colo.
Wyoming Press Association awards
Members of the Northwest Trail staff received more awards than any other two-year college at the annual Wyoming Press Association collegiate contest.
Trail staffers brought home 39 awards, including 12 first places, from the WPA's convention in Casper Jan. 17-19, 2002.
The Trail won most of the photography awards. Will Woody won first place for a news photo. For personality photos, Tiffany Bertsch took first, Woody second and Jon Lynch third with honorable mentions to Darcie Jones, Bertsch and Amber Urlacher. Jones took first for a photo story on the agriculture pavilion with Bertsch taking second and Woody third.
Bertsch won first in the feature photo category with Jones second and Woody third. In sports photography, Lynch took both first and second with Lee Tortorelli third and honorable mentions to Tortorelli, Lynch, Brian Stewart and Justin Gaskin. Lynch's photo of star trails placed first among scenic photos with Tortorelli second and Woody third.
Marko Ruble won a first place for a news story with Woody taking a second place. Kyle Cummings, Morgen Lawson, Tortorelli, Jed Grant and Bertsch won an honorable mention for investigative/interpretive stories.
Kim Ostermyer and Ruble won first place in government issue reporting as well as an honorable mention.
Bertsch and Ostermyer won the feature story category and Bertsch also placed third.
Garth Yeates placed first in sports column writing. Kenny McHoes took second place in column writing. Bertsch took third for editorial writing.
Ostermyer and Woody won the open page design category with Lynch and Woody taking third place. Woody and Ostermyer won first and second places in best use of editorial color.
Blake Neubert took third for an editorial cartoon. Bertsch and McHoes received an honorable mention for an information graphic.
Entries include work published between Nov. 1, 2000 and Oct. 31, 2001. Competing schools came from Wyoming and Colorado.
National awards
The Associated Collegiate Press judged the Northwest Trail Online Website as one of the 25 best nationally in October, 2000.
The Trail online site won recognition as a National Online Pacemaker Finalist. Finalists include both two-year and four-year colleges and universities. This year marked the premiere in judging Websites.
The Trail won a national Pacemaker award in 1998.