Hearst Sports Writing Competition Winners Announced
San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Sports Writing Competition of the 2024-2025 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 135 entries from 73 schools submitted in the second writing competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Ashton Slaughter, a senior from Oklahoma State University.
Ashton wins a $3,000 scholarship for the article “A Tulsa high school football player almost died on the field. It gave him a mission to help others.” Ashton also qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June 2025.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Ana Narayan, University of Oregon
Third Place, $1,500 award, Aaron Decker, Arizona State University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Greg Finberg, Pennsylvania State University
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Zach Carter, Ball State University
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Ethan Horton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Seventh Place, certificate, Madeleine Moore, University of Oregon
Eighth Place, certificate, Wally McKeon, Syracuse University
Ninth Place, certificate, Ryan Mack, Temple University
Tenth Place, certificate, Luke Owen, University of Connecticut
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the two writing competitions held thus far.
They are followed by: University of Florida, University of Iowa, Texas Christian University, University of Oregon, Arizona State University, Drake University, Temple University, Florida International University, Oklahoma State University.
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. The final intercollegiate winners will be announced after the completion of the last writing competition and presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The writing judges are: Maria Reeve, Managing Editor/Vice President, The Star Tribune; Sue Campbell, Managing Editor, Features, The Star Tribune; David Callaway, Founder and Editor, Callaway Climate Insights.
The 65th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program includes four writing, two photo, one audio, two television, one podcast and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, there are 105 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
