Congrats to The Saratogian for 2009-10 New York Associated Press awards

How this guy knew we'd

win is beyond me.

Belated congratulations to my colleagues here at The Saratogian for some awards recently announced by the New York Associated Press Association for the 2009-10 excellence contests.

You can read full details on the awards here, including links to some of the articles, but an especially big congrats to Mareesa Nicosia, for her series that examined homelessness in Saratoga Springs. To put it in context, she beat out The Ithaca Journal (second place in the category) for a series entitled "Policing the Ithaca City Police" and the Press-Republican in Plattsburg, which took third for pieces called "Crisis comes home."

The Saratogian competes in the Under 25,000 Circulation division.

"This. Is. The Saratogian!"

Stan Hudy and myself won first place in the Online Content category for our live coverage of the Scholastic Rowing Association's National Championships, held on Fish Creek in Saratoga Springs in late May. So a hearty congrats to Stan, too. Believe me, this was his baby; I just showed up did what was asked of me. (Besides, the stainless steel mug from Six Shooter Saloon that he graciously purchased for me on Day 2 was prize enough. The mug offered unlimited refills of "olde fashioned soda" from the booth set up right behind the media tent.)

We also shared first place in the Multimedia Packages category with photographer Erica Miller, Sports editor Andrew Bernstein, and reporters Paul Post and Kathleen Ronayne for coverage of the same event.