Dispatch staffers win APSE sports and ONPA photography awards

The Dispatch photography and sports reporting teams won major awards this week.

Photographers from The Dispatch and its sister community news publication Thisweek won 16 awards from the Ohio News Photographers Association, while the The Dispatch’s sports team won six top-ten awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).

The Dispatch performed better than any other Ohio publication in the national level APSE awards, according to Sports Editor Brian White. The newspaper won top-10 awards for digital, print portfolio, and special section (for a story about former Blue Jackets captain, Rick Nash.)

The paper also won a special project award for a series of articles by reporters Lori Schmidt, Joey Kaufman, Colin Gay, Rob Oller, and Adam Jardy on Ohio Stadium’s 100th anniversary, and photographer Adam Cairns won two APSE awards for action photo and feature photo.

The photographers who won awards from the Ohio News Photographers Association are Cairns (pictorial: second and third place; sports picture story: first and third place), Brooke Lavalley (news picture story: first place), Barbara J. Perenic (illustration: second place; portrait personality: first place; sports picture story: second place), Joseph Scheller (feature picture story: second place), Shane Flanigan (Thisweek, news picture story: second place) and Fred Squillante (feature: first place; sports feature: third place).

Cairns also won the first place Ron Kuntz Sports Photographer of the Year and first place George A. Smallsreed, Jr. Photographer of the Year (large market) awards, while Flanigan won the first place George A. Smallsreed, Jr. Photographer of the Year (small market) award, and Scheller won the “Award of Excellence” (large market).

Fred Squillante recently retired from The Dispatch. Thisweek, the Dispatch’s

sister community newspaper where Flanigan worked, ceased publication on January 26.

Some photos from the award-winning photographers are seen here. pgill@dispatch.com @pitaarji

FRED SQUILLANTE/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Jose Correa of Houston rests his head as he waits for a fork lift to push a Megalodon into place on Jan. 26, 2022, for the Jurassic Quest event at the Bricker Multipurpose Building at the Ohio Expo Center. As the fork lift pushed, Correa would guide the pre-historic shark. Megalodons were estimated to be 50-60 feet long and weigh an estimated 66,000 pounds.

JOSEPH SCHELLER/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Khushi Gurung, 12, dances Oct. 22 during a Tihar festival at Civic Park in Reynoldsburg organized by the Bhutanese Nepali community of Greater Columbus.

COLUMBUS DISPATCH BARBARA J. PERENIC/ Model Alyssa Alleyne-atherly of Polaris is painted by Lynn Hetherington Becker for a photo shoot on March 5, 2022.

SHANE FLANIGAN/THISWEEK Sam Campbell, left, 5, of Powell, and Charlie Skelton, 5, of Dublin, play in a pile of leaves Oct. 27 during the Ohio Wildlife Center’s Howl-o-ween event in Powell.