COLUMBUS (AP) — The Sentinel-Tribune columnist who writes about his home and travels with humor has won a
first-place Associated Press award.
Raul Ascunce was the first-place winner at the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors’ annual awards on
Saturday.
Ascunce writes an every-other week column for the Sentinel. His column is also regularly carried in The
Lima News, which is an AIM Media Midwest sister paper to the Sentinel.
J.D. Pooley took third place in the best photography category. He is the newspaper’s multi-media
journalist, who photographs news, features and sports, and does videos. Pooley also handles most of the
web site and social media duties for the Sentinel.
Former sports editor Thomas Schmeltz got second place for best sports feature writer. Schmeltz recently
left the Sentinel sports department to become a marketing specialist at Blue Line Aviation in North
Carolina.
All three were finalists for the Ohio APME 2018 newspaper contest.
The Sentinel competed in Division I, Newspapers with a daily circulation up to 7,999.
Fifty-five daily newspapers submitted 1,776 entries in the contest, which featured news and sports
stories, features, editorials, columns, graphics and photos from 2018.
Entries were judged by editors from The Detroit News, Division V; Digital First Media, Troy, Michigan,
Division IV; Midland Daily News and McComb Daily (Michigan), Division III; Mlive Media Group and the
Cadillac (Michigan) News, Division II; the Petoskey (Michigan) News-Review and the Ludington (Michigan)
Daily News, Division I.
The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,300 newspapers and 5,000
broadcast stations in the United States.