Kilgore College’s student newspaper, The Flare, won sweepstakes for the 19th time in the last 21 years at the Texas Community College Journalism Association convention in Austin last weekend.

The Flare nabbed 18 awards, including first place in Division II for overall general excellence. The staff took first-place honors in 10 out of 17 total categories.

Contest materials were submitted from the 2008-09 school year when Taylor Cammack and J.C. Derrick were co-executive editors. Editors from Prime Time Newspapers in San Antonio were judges for the competition.

“This award is really a validation of all our hard work put in by the staff and our advisers,” Cammack said. “This honor is special in that much of the work that was submitted for this contest was done almost completely by freshman students from last year.”

The Flare also won its 19th sweepstakes at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association convention in Dallas this past spring.

The students also competed in live competitions, including news writing, editorial writing, news photography and feature photography. Derrick won first place in news writing and Cammack received an honorable mention in news photography.

“It’s always fun to represent KC in the live competitions,” Derrick said. “We know we have a reputation to uphold and we always do our best to live up to it.”

Bettye Craddock is the adviser for The Flare and O. Rufus Lovett is the photography adviser.

Award recipients are as follows: Ashley Austin (Pasadena): 1st, column writing

Patrick Brown (Quinlan): 1st, picture page or panel

Trent Callaway (Longview): honorable mention, advertising single ad

Taylor Cammack (Longview): 1st, feature writing

Nic Cox (Longview): 1st, picture page or panel; 2nd, news photo

J.C. Derrick (Longview): 1st, news writing; 1st, indepth investigative reporting; honorable mention, sports feature

Clint Fultner (Hallsville): 1st, cartoon

Rick Gray (Longview): 1st, sports action; 3rd, sports photo; 3rd, feature photo

Ryan Griffin (Kilgore): 1st in layout and design

Christian Keitt (Henderson): honorable mention, indepth investigative reporting; honorable mention, editorial writing

Kelley Shorette (Longview): 1st and honorable mention, in-depth investigative reporting

Staff: Sweepstakes, 1st in general excellence, 1st and honorable mention in headline writing