For the third year in a row, the Glendale High School Explosion was named Best Overall School Newspaper in the Glendale Unified School District at the District-wide Journalism Contest, held April 26, at Hoover High School. It took a dramatic finish for GHS to overtake Hoover's Tornado Times, which led throughout the competition.
GHS overcame a two-point deficit with three categories remaining to win, 41-35. Crescenta Valley finished third with 32 points and Clark Magnet, in its first year in the contest, had eight points.
The contest, scored by the Glendale News-Press and sponsored by the Glendale Host Lions Club, judged entries in 16 categories. Students were given recognition for excellence in writing; news, feature, entertainment and sports articles, as well as best artwork, photography and layout and design. Five new categories were added. Each paper's "sections" were evaluated.
Hoover had finished in third place the past two years but the 1999-2000 contest was a different story. The Tornado Times staff collected the most first places of any school (6) and led Glendale High after 13 categories, 31 to 29. Hoover took first place in three of the five writing categories and also scored key points with exceptional Sports Photos of All-American runner Anita Siraki and outstanding Artwork.
The final three categories were Best News Photo, Best Sports Section and Best Overall Issue. Glendale, down by two points, took first and second place in Best News Photo while Hoover placed third. That gave Explosion its first lead, 34-32. Glendale then was awarded first place for Best Sports Section, Hoover took second place, putting Explosion up, 38-35. The final category was Best Overall Issue and GHS placed first and CV took second and third, making the final tally GHS 41, Hoover 35 and CV 32.
Glendale and CV staffers each took five first places and GHS scored well with nine second places. The Explosion received 17 total awards, the most of any school. CV had 15 awards and Hoover 14.
"The district contest brings out the best in all the schools. We feel very fortunate to have won," said GHS adviser Pat Lancaster.
Explosion's strongest category was News Photo where they took first and second place. It marked the third year in a row Explosion staffers have won first place for that category and also the third time the staff had won best Artwork category. GHS scored well in the Best Entertainment Article and Layout and Design categories placing second and third.


Explosion first-place winners:
Julie Kwak: Best News Photo
Hayk Manukyan: Best Artwork
Sheri Guerami: Best News Section
Peter Kim, Sang Lee: Best Sports Section
Jonathan Silva, Yujin Yi: Best Overall Issue

Explosion scoring:
Hannah Chang: 6 points
Julie Kwak: 5 points
Sang Lee: 4 points
Lilit Baron: 4 points
Sheri Guerami: 4 points
Yujin Yi: 3 1/2 points
Hayk Manukyan: 3 points
Parnaz Taheri: 3 points
Peter Kim: 2 points
Harvey Rodriguez: 2 points
Jonathan Silva: 1 1/2 points
Asia Wilcox: 1 1/2 points
Carmen White: 1 point
Amy Jue: 1/2 point

Explosion
wins annual District-wide Journalism Contest
Final score:
Glendale Explosion 41, Hoover Tornado Times 35, Crescenta Valley Falcon 32, Clark Chronicle 8

Section Scoring:
4 points for first place, 3 points for second place, 2 points for third place, 1 point for fourth place
5 categories

Best News Section
1st place- Glendale: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-31-00 issue
2nd place- Hoover: The judges were especially impressed with the 2-24-00 issue
3rd place- CV: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-24-00 issue
4th place- Clark: The judges were especially impressed with the 4-4-00 issue

Best Opinion Section
1st place- Hoover: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-23-00 issue
2nd place- Glendale: The judges were especially impressed with the 10-5-99 issue
3rd place- CV: The judges were especially impressed with the 2-25-00 issue
4th place- Clark: The judges were especially impressed with the 4-4-00 issue

Best Feature Section
1st place- CV: The judges were especially impressed with the 1-24-00 issue
2nd place- Glendale: The judges were especially impressed with the 12-17-99 issue
3rd place- Hoover: The judges were especially impressed with the 12-16-99 issue
4th place- Clark: The judges were especially impressed with the 4-4-00 issue

Best Entertainment Section
1st place- Hoover: The judges were especially impressed with the 12-16-99 issue
2nd place- Glendale: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-31-00 issue
3rd place- CV: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-24-00 issue
4th place- Clark: The judges were especially impressed with the 2-10-00 issue

Best Sports Section
1st place- Glendale: The judges were especially impressed with the 3-31-00 issue
2nd place- Hoover: The judges were especially impressed with the 1-20-00 issue
3rd place- CV: The judges were especially impressed with the 10-29-99 issue
4th place- Clark: The judges were especially impressed with the 2-10-00 issue