Greg “Zing” Linch and Gitana Gotay won first-place awards during the Society of Professional Journalists’ regional convention Saturday. Linch, a freshman who intends to major in print journalism, won in the general news category for his stories on the faculty housing crunch. Gotay, a broadcast journalism major, won in the television feature category for her story on the use of fake IDs.
Other students took home awards as well. Ryan Dean won second place in the television general news reporting category, Allison Williams won second place in television sports reporting, Robert Capel won third place in television feature and Nathalie Pozo won third place in television general news reporting.
The staff of The Miami Hurricane won third place for best non-daily student newspaper.
First place winners will compete nationally at the SPJ national convention in August. SPJ members Joanna Davila, Yarel Ramos and Greg Linch attended the conference along with chapter adviser Sallie Hughes.