The Winchester Sun was named Kentucky’s best small daily newspaper at the annual Kentucky Press Association’s 2018 Excellence in Newspapers contest Friday night in Louisville. The organization is the nation’s 10th oldest state press association and represents nearly 175 newspapers throughout the state.

The Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers Contest is designed for reporting, writing and photography entries. Newspapers select some of their best work from the past year to be submitted and judged by representatives from other press associations around the country.

General Excellence scoring is based on the number of first-, second-, third-place and honorable mentions awarded to each newspaper in various classes, including weeklies, dailies, mult-weeklies and student publications from around the state.

Sun staffers — current and former — and regular contributors took home 24 awards in a variety of categories and placed first in the Daily Class 1 General Excellence contest.

Second-place went to the Glasgow Daily Times, and the Murray Ledger and Times took third in the class.

The Sun placed second in the class for 2017 and third in the class in 2016.

Among the honors announced at the KPA conference were eight first-place, five second-place and 11 third-place awards.

Sun editor Whitney Leggett was awarded first place for best editorial, third place for best general news story and best enterprise/analytical story, second place for best graphic and first and third place for best front page.

Longtime Sun reporter Fred Petke was awarded second place for best investigative story .

Sun publisher Mike Caldwell won third place for best editorial.

Reporter Lashana Harney won third place for best breaking news coverage, best feature story and best business/agribusiness story. She took home first place for best feature photo and best picture essay.

The Sun’s community contributors swept the category for best columns with Erin Smith’s “Seeking Connection” taking first place, Chuck Witt’s political commentary taking second and Jean Brody’s “The View From the Mountains” column winning third.

For sports, former sports editor Keith Taylor won first place for best sports photo and sports reporter Micah Satterly won second place for best sports photo.

Overall staff awards included a third place for best photo essay, first place for best special section, first and third place for best editorial page and second place for best front page.

Other newspapers owned by Boone Newspapers also fared well at the competition.

The State Journal of Frankfort placed second in general excellence in the Daily Class 2 (for mid-sized newspapers). Staffers from The Advocate-Messenger in Danville, The Jessamine Journal in Nicholasville and The Interior Journal in Stanford also won multiple awards in their respective classes.