Northwood newspaper takes first and Irvine High is second in county journalism competition

A pair of high school newspapers from Irvine took first and second place at this year’s Orange County Journalism Education Association Write-Offs, which were held March 2 at Fullerton College.

The Howler, which prints all the news that’s fit to print at Northwood High School, won the overall Division 1 sweepstakes at the competition for student newspaper reporters, yearbook staffs and broadcast news teams. Irvine High’s El Vaquero, which won that same honor the previous two years, placed second in the sweepstakes. And the accolades didn’t end there. The Howler also won second place in the Best in Show category for Division 2 and second place among online newspapers. Individual Northwood winners included Christina Ko (first place) in news; Zoe Burger (first place) and Angeline Nguyen in critical review; Yash Gupta (first place) and Jennifer Yu in sports; Megan Nazareno (first place) in editorial; Sooyun Choi and Jenny Lee in layout; Brittney Kuo, Christine Lee and Jennifer Park in features; Param Shah in photography; and Michelle Quin, Eugene Chang, Claire Lee and Karina Lee in the novice news category. Meanwhile, staffers from the juggernaut that is El Vaquero brought home first place in Division 2 Best of Show. Individual winners from Irvine High included Sally Oh in news; Clara Baik, Melanie Sakurada and Alex Thompson in sports; Paul Kim and Sid Paladugu in editorial; Joseph Kim in cartooning; Max Chen and Tracy Nguyen in layout; and Jessica Lin, Jemimah Degala, Darian Ginsberg, Jillian Kido, Barbara Ko and Brandon Nguyen in the novice news category. Qualifiers will advance to the Southern California Journalism Education Association State Write-Offs, which will be held April 13 at Cal State Long Beach.