photo by: Anders Benson

Anders Benson won first place in the Academic Photography at the 2025 KSPA State Contests.

Student journalists from Lawrence and Free State High Schools earned more than 20 honors in the Kansas Scholastic Press Association State Contests this year, and both schools’ journalism advisers won special recognition too.

According to a news release from KSPA, around 80 Kansas schools submitted nearly 1,300 entries in this year’s contests, which include categories such as news writing, yearbook design, photography and more.

Three students from Lawrence High School and two from Free State won first-place awards for their work, according to the release. The LHS winners were Piper Journey, cutline writing; Beatrix Johnson, social media; and Alex Velasco-Crates, video PSA. The Free State winners were Anders Benson, academics photography, and Jaehee Kim, yearbook design. More than a dozen other entries from the two schools placed between second and sixth in the contests, as well.

Benson, a junior, was also named as KSPA’s overall Kansas Photojournalist of the Year for his portfolio entry, which judges photographers on their body of work for an entire year.

In addition to the students, high school journalism advisers Jared Shuff of Free State and Barbara Tholen of Lawrence High were both honored by KSPA. Shuff received the KSPA Sunflower Award, which is given each year to an outstanding new journalism adviser, and Tholen, who is also the president-elect of KSPA, won the Jackie Engel Award for Adviser of the Year.

In the news release, Tholen said all of the students should be proud of their achievements.

“We know this is just part of the hard work students put in all year as they learn the craft of journalism,” Tholen said. “We love celebrating their work and seeing the creativity this generation of journalists brings to each contest.”

photo by: Ava Talbott

Ava Talbott placed 3rd in the Digital Illustration category at the 2025 KSPA State Contests.

Below are the students from Lawrence and Free State high schools who placed in this year’s awards:

Lawrence High

• Lydia Folks, Academics Photography, 2nd place

• Eliza Naumann, Academics Photography, 3rd place

• Piper Journey, Cutline Writing, 1st Place

• Arabella Gipp, Infographic Design, 6th place

• Beatrix Johnson, Social Media, 1st place

• Lydia Folks, Sports Feature Photography, 4th place

• Lydia Folks, Student Life Photography, 2nd place

• Taryn Wells/Ida Harrington, Video News, 6th place

• Alex Velasco-Crates, Video PSA, 1st place

• Morgan Moeckly/Arabella Gipp, Video PSA, 3rd place

• Juliet Outka, Yearbook Sports Writing, 5th place

Free State High

• Anders Benson, Academics Photography, 1st place

• Nathan Friedman, Cutline Writing, 5th place

• Ava Talbott, Digital Illustration, 3rd place

• Geneva Sabatini, Editorial Cartoon, 5th place

• Maria Mosconi, News Writing, 4th place

• Lauren Jackson, Review Writing, 5th place

• Delaney Bayliss, Social Media, 3rd place

• Nathan Friedman, Sports Action Photography, 2nd place

• Nick Sprecker, Sports Writing, 5th place

• Jaehee Kim, Yearbook Design, 1st place

• Avery Smiley/Richard Li, Yearbook Theme & Graphics, 2nd place