The Lawrence Journal-World won 21 first-place awards in the annual Awards of Excellence competition sponsored by the Kansas Press Assn.

The awards will be presented at the association’s annual meeting April 22 in Wichita.

The paper took top honors for its design and layout excellence; headline, column, sports column, feature, and editorial writing; and news and investigative reporting.

It also won first place for its Web site and its sports and feature photography.

The Journal-World also was deemed best for local business, education, agricultural, sports and sports feature stories. Its “KU Today” special section received a first-place award. And it won first place for best front page and best sports pages.

It earned first-place awards for best use of photos and best feature package.

The newspaper also won 10 second-place awards, nine third-place awards and five honorable mentions.

First-place winners are:

¢ Headline writing: Susan Roberts, “Within science circles, Kansas square.“

¢ Feature writing: Terry Rombeck, “They call him Batman.”

This feature photo by Richard Gwin received a first-place award from the Kansas Press Assn. in its annual Awards of Excellence competition. It shows Elizabeth Hein visiting her son's grave at Oak Hill Cemetery in March 2005.

¢ News story: Mike Belt, “Disaster strikes here.”

¢ Editorial writing: Ann Gardner, “Leave it local.”

¢ Agriculture story: Jim Baker, “Harvesters saying ‘to heck with it.’“

¢ Sports feature: Ryan Wood, “Stuckey sticks to his word.“

¢ Column writing: Dennis Anderson, “A visit from the tooth fairy.”

¢ Feature photo: Richard Gwin, “Son’s absence.”

¢ Sports photo: Scott McClurg, “Home away from home.”

¢ Investigative story: Eric Weslander, “Sex predators.”

¢ Education story: Sophia Maines, “One-time bully finds new path.“

¢ Sports story: Andy Samuelson, “Kanaan by a ‘nose.’“

¢ Sports column writing: Jesse Newell, “J-W sports writer preparing for basketball walk-on tryout.“

¢ Local business story: Chad Lawhorn, “Oil prices ignite state boom.“

¢ Feature package: Bill Snead, “A cowboy’s last hand.“

Second-place winners are Karrey Britt, headline writing; Joel Mathis, news story and column writing; Mindie Paget, feature story; Thad Allender, feature photo; McClurg, sports photo; Weslander, series; Gary Bedore, sports story; and Tom Keegan, sports column writing.

Third-place winners are Snead, feature story; Keegan, sports feature story; Jon Niccum, youth story; Allender, feature photo; Dave Ranney, investigative story; Maines, series; Scott Rothschild, education story; Bedore, sports story; and Mark Fagan, local business story.

Ranney, Rombeck, Allender and Andrew Hartsock received honorable mentions for their work.

The newspaper also received a second-place award for news and writing excellence and editorial pages.