Category: J-School

Nearly 150 high school students from as far away as Frazer (465 miles) and as close as Hellgate High (seven blocks) gathered at the University of Montana School of Journalism on April 21 to celebrate the state’s top high school media makers, connect with each other and take workshops with the school’s professors at the annual Montana High School Journalism and Media Day.

The day kicked off with the Montana High School Journalism Awards, given by the School of Journalism and the Montana Journalism Education Association. Bigfork High School’s Elizabeth Hyde was named the Montana High School Journalist of the Year, with MJEA’s Beth Britton and Missoulian publisher Jim Strauss hailing her work and promise as a young journalist.

In the “pacesetter” categories, the Hellgate Lance won for online publications among AA schools and The Norse Code from Bigfork High won for Class B schools. Eagle TV at Big Sky High School took home the broadcast pacesetter award for AA schools and the Norse Code at Bigfork High won the category for B schools.

For newspaper pacesetters, The Hellgate Lance won the AA category, The Signal Butte at Custer County High School won for Class A, The Florence Chronicle at Florence-Carlton High won Class B and the Sagebrush Saga from Garfield County High School won in Class C.

Kendall Boehm of the Florence Chronicle won the Student Free Press Award for coverage of a club that formed to support LGBTQ+ students.

“It is always tricky for student journalists to cover controversial issues in your school, but even more difficult to cover a topic that has exploded into the divisive world of social media beyond the schoolhouse gates,” the judges wrote.

See the full list of awards and photos below.

Photos by Griffin Ziegert.

High School Class	Category	Place	Newspaper/Program	School	Individual Winner (If applicable)
AA	Feature Writing	First	The Hellgate Lance	Hellgate High School	Ali Caudle
C	Feature Writing	First	Sagebrush Saga	Garfield County High School	Abby Pierce
AA	Sports Event Writing	First	Big Sky Sun Journal	Big Sky High School	Hollin Keintz
A	Sports Event Writing	First	Signal Butte	Custer County High School	Miranda Moe
B	Sports Event Writing	First	Florence Chronicle	Florence-Carlton High School	Abigail Binder
C	Sports Event Writing	First	Ennis Mustang Monthly	Ennis High School	Lily Connor
AA	Sports Feature Writing	First	Hellgate Lance	Hellgate High School	Maggie Vann
A	Sports Feature Writing	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Liz Hyde
C	Sports Feature Writing	First	Sagebrush Saga	Garfield County High School	Abby Pierce
AA	Opinion Writing	First	Hawk Talk	Bozeman High School	Miles Fastnow
C	Opinion Writing	First	Mustang Monthly	Ennis High School	Ruby Blazer
AA	News Writing	First	Hawk Tawk	Bozeman High School	Olivia Bulis
A	News Writing	First	Signal Butte	Custer County High School	Lauren Reinhart
B	News Writing	First	The Howl Newspaper	Shelby High School	Hayden Schilling
C	News Writing	First	The Mustang Monthly	Ennis High School	Ruby Blazer
B	Feature Photography	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Zoe Sellers
AA	News Photography	First	The Stampede	C.M. Russell High School	Isabel Foley
AA	Sports Photography	First	Sun Journal	Big Sky High School	Kolja Gerstenkorn
AA	Audio	First	The Joust	Hellgate High School	Darian Davalos, Win Duerk and Sierra Meissner
C	Video Newscast	First	Falcon Student News	Twin Bridges High School	Ruby Waller, Sam Konen, Emma Konen and Callie Kaiser
AA	Video: Sports	First	Eagle TV	Big Sky High School	Jacob Gardanier, Cole Campbell, Tre Reed and Dawson Raulston
B	Video: Sports	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Abby Curtiss
AA	Video: PSA	First	Eagle TV	Big Sky High School	Douglas Lautzenheiser, Gwen Fleming-Campbell and Hollin Keintz
AA	Video: Arts & Entertainment	First	Eagle TV	Big Sky High School	Hollin Keintz, Doug Lautzenheiser and Gwen Fleming-Campbell
B	Video: Arts & Entertainment	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Liz Hyde and Zoe Sellers
AA	Video: General Assignment News	First	Eagle TV	Big Sky High School	Hollin Keintz
AA	Photo Illustration	First	The Stampede	C.M. Russell High School	Isabel Foley
A	Advertising Design	First	Signal Butte	Custer County District High School	Signal Butte Staff
C	Advertising Design	First	Sagebrush Saga/Garfield Yearbook	Garfield County District High School	Brenna Murnion
B	Editorial Cartooning	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Lillian Peterson
C	Editorial Cartooning	First	The Mustang Monthly	Ennis High School	Gracie Leavitt
AA	Infographic	First	The Stampede	C.M. Russell High School	Isabel Foley
A	Infographic	First	Signal Butte	Custer County High School	Lauren Reinhart
B	Infographic	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School	Piper Lee
A	Newspaper Design	First	Signal Butte	Custer County High School
B	Newspaper Design	First	Florence Chronicle	Florence-Carlton High School
AA	Online Pacesetter	First	The Hellgate Lance	Hellgate High School
B	Online Pacesetter	First	The Norse Code	Bigfork High School
AA	Broadcast Pacesetter	First	Eagle TV	Big Sky High School
B	Broadcast Pacesetter	First	The Norse Code Newscast	Bigfork High School
AA	Newspaper Pacesetter	First	The Hellgate Lance	Hellgate High School
A	Newspaper Pacesetter	First	The Signal Butte	Custer County High School
B	Newspaper Pacesetter	First	The Florence Chronicle	Florence-Carlton High School
C	Newspaper Pacesetter	First	Sagebrush Saga	Garfield County High School
B	Student Free Press Award	First	Florence Chronicle	Florence-Carlton High School	Kendall Boehm
B	High School Journalist of the Year			Bigfork High School	Elizabeth Hyde