San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Sports Writing Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from a record 150 entries from 83 schools submitted in the second writing competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Lincoln Roch, a senior from University of Colorado.
Lincoln wins a $3,000 scholarship for the article “‘Slurs and harassment at BYU game alienate Mormon CU
students.” Lincoln also qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June 2026.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Lily Newman, Syracuse University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Jessica Garcete, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Gage Wellman, Kent State University
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Sophie Fowler, University of Oregon
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Greg Finberg, Pennsylvania State University
Seventh Place, certificate, Claire Huss, University of Maryland
Eighth Place, certificate, Jacob Tukker, University of Missouri
Ninth Place, certificate, Ally Larkin, University of Nevada, Reno
Tenth Place, certificate, Gabby Rogers, Indiana University
Syracuse University leads 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 Colorado
Pennsylvania State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Missouri
Colorado State University
Elon University
University of Oregon (tie)
Kent State University (tie)
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 four writing competitions and presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The writing judges are: Sue Campbell, Editor, Food and Culture, Minnesota Star Tribune; Suki Dardarian, retired journalist/former editor, Minnesota Star Tribune; Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Editor in Chief, San Francisco Chronicle.
The 66th 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 104 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
