The Augustana Observer received 18 awards, including General Excellence, from the Illinois College Press Association on Feb. 21.
During ICPA’s two-day convention in Chicago, the Observer received first place in General Excellence for the division of non-daily papers in colleges that have less than 4,000 students.
First place winners in the division of non-dailies under 4,000 included News Editor Chloe Dale for her front page layout, the staff for their Homecoming photo essay and Photo Editor Linnea Ritchie in the category of feature photo.
Second place winners in the same division included Observer co-Editor in Chief Shylee Garrett in the category of column excluding sports, former Features Editor Jake Genens in the category of feature story other than sports and Observer co-Editor in Chief Ryan Silvola in the category of spot news photo.
Third place winners in the same division included Garrett for feature page design and former Sports Editor Brennan Casey in the category of sports game day story.
Honorable mention award recipients included Sports Editor Katie Canning, former Sports Editor Jeremy Lensing and Garrett in the category of headline writing, former Photo Editor Kyle Soyer in the categories of photo essay and sports photo,  Silvola in the category of sports game story, Canning in the category of sports feature story and Opinions Editor Carolyn Muller in the category in-depth reporting.
Silvola also took honorable mention in the category of multimedia reporting, visual journalist Ian Magnuson took second place in the Chicago photo shooting contest and former employee Taylor Gleason took third place in the category of cartoon strip or panel in the open division.