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Matthew Kent, Program Coordinator, 317-920-4788, mkent@spj.org
Zoë Berg, SPJ Communications Coordinator, 317-920-4785, zberg@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – Five MOEy finalists have been selected from more than 3,300 entries in The Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards competition. The MOEy honors the best of the best in student journalism.

Student entries are first judged regionally across print, radio, television and online collegiate journalism categories. First-place regional winners advance to the national competition and then compete for the MOEy award.

This year’s MOEy finalists are:

• Britton O’Daly, Hailey Fuchs, Jingyi Cui and Serena Cho, Yale University (Breaking News Reporting, Large School Division)
• Chris McCrory, Arizona State University (Online In-Depth Reporting)
• Storme Jones, University of Oklahoma (Radio News Reporting)
• Nicole Neri, Arizona State University (Sports Photography, Large School Division)
• Student Documentary Unit Spring 2018, University of Montana (Television In-Depth Reporting)

Britton O’Daly, Hailey Fuchs, Jingyi Cui and Serena Cho
O’Daly, Fuchs, Cui and Cho are the national winners for Breaking News Reporting, Large School Division. Their reporting covered how Yale student Saifullah Khan navigated rape charges. Khan was found not guilty of rape by a criminal court, only to be suspended from Yale for another allegation of sexual misconduct brought forward by the Yale Daily News.

Chris McCrory
McCrory is the national winner for Online In-Depth Reporting. McCrory found that Arizona has at least 100,000 abandoned gold, metal, silver and copper mines around the state and officials only know the location of only a small fraction of them, in a story titled “In a hole: Arizona officials lack funds to find, secure at least 100,000 abandoned mines.”

Storme Jones
Jones is the national winner in the Radio News Reporting category. His piece, “Norman City Council checks out plastic bag fee,” is about Norman, Oklahoma, considering a fee to help combat a growing problem with plastic.

Nicole Neri
Neri is the national winner for Sports Photography, Large School Division. Her winning photo, “Ballyard Brawl mixes it up in Haymarket Park,” captured two men fighting in the rain for the Dynasty Combat Sports Pro bantamweight title. It was taken during an outdoor brawl in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Student Documentary Unit - Spring 2018
The 2018 Spring Student Documentary Unit at the University of Montana is the national winner in the Television In-Depth Reporting category. Its entry, “Montana jails: Slammed for solutions,” looked at how Montana is trying to break the pattern of addiction and jail time as many of the state’s 36 jails are overcrowded.

The winner of the MOEy will be announced during the Student Union at Excellence in Journalism 2019 Sept. 6 in San Antonio. The event is free with EIJ19 registration.

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