From Staff ReportsStaffers at The Oklahoman won 21 first-place awards recently, including 16 Saturday in the annual Society of Professional Journalism Oklahoma contest. SPJ winners included Jaclyn Cosgrove, for her story and blog on the Costello family tragedy; Adam Kemp for his coverage of the racist chant at Sigma Alpha Epsilon; and Randy Ellis for his coverage of the crash at Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade. Other winners were: Jim Beckel, general photography; Rob Backus, headline writing; Richard Hall, interactive graphic, multimedia, web design and online writing; Jason Kersey, sports feature; Jacob Unruh, sports reporting; Bryan Terry, story/photo essay and best photo portfolio; Todd Pendleton, use of graphic illustration; and Juliana Keeping, best reporting portfolio. In a separate contest, Nolan Clay won a First Amendment Award from the Fort Worth Society of Professional Journalists in the Defending the Disadvantaged category. Clay won for his story about abused and neglected children at a state-run shelter. The Fort Worth SPJ contest is open to news organizations in Texas and Oklahoma. The Oklahoman also won first place in four categories in the Great Plains Journalism Awards competition. Hall won for web special section; Terry and Kersey won for sports video; Terry also won for sports action photography; and the sports reporting award went to Jenni Carlson, Kersey, Berry Tramel and Ryan Aber for their coverage of University of Oklahoma football player Eric Striker's response to the racist chant at SAE. The Oklahoman was a finalist in 20 other categories in the eight-state competition that includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Sports honors In March, the sports department was ranked among the top 10 nationally in various categories by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In March, the Associated Press Sports Editors ranked The Oklahoman's sports writers in the Top 10 nationally in six writing categories and Top 5 in multimedia for newspapers with a circulation of 75,000-175,000: • Top 5 multimedia: Erik Horne, Terry, Steve Sisney, Chris Landsberger • Top 10 beat writing: Kersey • Top 10 breaking news: Unruh • Top 10 features: Kersey • Top 10 columns: Carlson • Top 10 columns: Tramel • Top 10 projects: Darnell Mayberry and Anthony Slater The Oklahoman also had a Top 10 special section — its Thunder season preview — and a Top 15 Sunday section in the APSE contest. Read more on NewsOK.com