Times Investigative Team Wins Reporting Contest

The Times took top prize in enterprise reporting in the final writing results of the national Associated Press Sports Editors contest announced Friday.

The award was for a series of stories, all of which ran on A1 of the newspaper, on the International Olympic Committee in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City scandal. The writers on the series were sports staffers Alan Abrahamson, David Wharton and Randy Harvey. They will receive their awards at APSE’s national convention in Baltimore in late June.

Other Times writing entries, all in the large-paper category, included Mark Heisler’s second-place finish in feature writing for his profile of Laker Coach Phil Jackson, plus honorable mentions for columnists Bill Plaschke, who won last year, and Harvey.

Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press, the winningest writer in the history of the APSE awards and author of the best-selling book “Tuesdays With Morrie,” won in two categories again. He was first in column writing and feature writing. He has been first in column writing 13 of the last 15 years and in feature writing seven of the last nine.

Other Southern California finishes included third and fourth places in large paper news and investigative, respectively, by Scott Reid of the Orange County Register; third place in investigative reporting (all circulation categories), for the Long Beach Press Telegram team of Mary Hancock Hinds, Steve Irvine, Ted Klan, Fausto Ramos, Joe Segura, Joe Stevens, Wendy Thomas Russell and Bill Witz, and two medium-paper circulation fourth places in column writing and game story by Paul Oberjuerge of the San Bernardino Sun.