Hawaii Baptist Academy’s student journalists bested 16 other public and private schools to take the top award Wednesday in the annual Hawaii High School Journalism Awards competition.

The independent school was named best in state, followed by Mililani High School and Kamehameha Schools Maui.

"We came last year and we placed third. We tried so hard to do our best over the past year, and it paid off," said Hawaii Baptist senior Danielle Woo, co-editor of the Eagle Eye student newspaper. "This competition motivated me and all of us."

"We really wanted to take first place this year," added Eagle Eye co-editor Jaryd Sugihara.

Nine public schools and eight private schools statewide competed in 21 categories.

In an initial round of judging, public school entries and private school entries were separately awarded winners in each category, ranging from best news writing and feature writing to best layout and digital illustration.

The winning public school entry and winning private school entry in each category were then judged to determine an overall state winner for each category. Schools garnering the most points across all categories won the top best in state awards.

For Hawaii Baptist, that meant collecting seven first-place awards in the private school division, and an additional five first-place awards in the state division.

Mililani High — last year’s overall top winner — received six first-place awards in the public school division, and one first-place award in the state division this year.

"We all know it’s not about the win, but I’m glad that the work of the staff was validated. Everyone worked really hard," said Mililani senior Lauren Barbour, editor in chief of the Trojan Times.

This year, entries were not separated by print and online publications.

The contest was sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association, Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser, MidWeek, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Morris Visitor Publications and Hagadone Printing.

STATE WINNERS

As selected by a panel of judges.

DIVISION WINNERS

Division winners were selected by a panel of judges. Another panel then picked the state winners.

Click here to enlarge

MOST VALUABLE STAFFERS

Selected by the staff and adviser of each school newspaper.

WAIPAHU
Chavonnie Ramos
Designer & Photographer

HAWAII BAPTIST
Danielle Woo
Co-Editor

MOANALUA
Eunica Escalante
Editor in Chief

KAISER
Gianni Marabella
Co-Editor in Chief

RADFORD
Hanh Pham
Editor

SACRED HEARTS
Kristen Kate Tumacder
Webmaster

MILILANI
Lauren Barbour
Editor in Chief

MCKINLEY
Lin Song
Co-Editor

‘IOLANI
Lindsey Combs
Editor in Chief

HAWAIIAN MISSION
Lydia Earles
Editor

KAMEHAMEHA MAUI
Maile Sur
Editor in Chief

KAMEHAMEHA
Pono Suganuma
Editor in Chief

LAHAINALUNA
Sofia Fredy
Editor in Chief

LUTHERAN
Tess Fukuyama
Editor in Chief

MID-PACIFIC
Thomas Nitta
Staff writer