Sports Editors Honor Times in 5 Categories

The Los Angeles Times sports section was honored in five categories in national judging for the Associated Press Sports Editors 1999 contest released Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The section was a top-10 winner in the daily and Sunday categories, and earned honorable mention in special sections. Bill Plaschke (columns) and Chris Dufresne (feature story) were top-10 finishers.

The Times was judged among papers with circulations of more than 250,000, the largest of the four categories in the contest.

Nationally, eight papers were in the top 10 in each of the section categories--daily, Sunday and special sections: the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star and the Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.) in the under-40,000 category; the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.), Hartford Courant and Seattle Times in 100,000-250,000; and the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Dallas Morning News in over-250,000.

Regionally, the Orange County Register (over-250,000) and Los Angeles Daily News (100,000-250,000) earned honorable mention in the daily and Sunday categories.

Other top-10 finishers from area papers were Larry Bohannon of the Palm Springs Desert Sun (game story) and Jon Michaels of the Antelope Valley Press (news story) in 40,000-100,000; Bob Keisser, Long Beach Press-Telegram (feature), and Stephanie Diaz, Riverside Press-Enterprise (news) in 100,000-250,000.