The small newsroom staff of the South Whidbey Record and Whidbey News-Times won a record 25 awards at this year’s Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspaper contest.

South Whidbey Record reporter Kira Erickson won first place as Feature Writer of the Year for the entire state. The Whidbey News-Times won third place in general excellence.

The annual awards were announced during the convention in Kennewick Saturday. A total of 47 newspapers participated with nearly 1,300 entries in the news and photography categories.

Erickson also won six awards for individual stories within circulation group 3. She won first place in the Personality Profile, Long category for the story “Unicycling into the sunset” about Deano the Clown retiring. She won first place in Business Feature Story for “Support grows for Whidbey agriculture.” She won second place in Social Issue Story for “Beard photo exhibit hits a snarl.”

In addition, Erickson won third place in the News Story, Long category for “Closed boat launch part of larger problem,” third place in History Feature Story for “Joseph Whidbey’s will discovered, donated,” and third place in Arts Feature for “Flying colors.”

Whidbey News-Times reporter Karina Andrew won eight awards this year in the same circulation category. She won first place and second place in the General Feature Story, Long category for “‘I heard the missiles whizzing overhead’” about an Oak Harbor man who lived in Ukraine and “ICOM dispatchers are ‘the calm within the storm.’”

In the category Social Issue Story, Andrew won first place for the story “Federal program supports Whidbey homeless youth.” In History Feature, she won first place for “State’s most popular park turns 100.” In Personality Profile, Short, she placed first for “Photography exhibit elicits ‘presence of wonder.’”

In addition, Andrew won second place in Personality Profile, Long for “‘The Bear’ producer feeds Whidbey” and third place in General Feature, Short for “Playing by Heart.”

Andrew also won third place in the General Feature Photo category for “Lt. Colby Diamond proposes to his girlfriend, Deirdre Tomlinson shortly after returning home from deployment” from the story “‘Wizards’ have magical homecoming.”

South Whidbey Record photographer David Welton won three photography awards. He got first place in the coveted General News Photo for a photo that accompanied the story “Residents prefer their pot legal.” He won second and third place in Portrait Photo category for a photo with the story “Fair fun returns to Whidbey” and another that accompanied the story “Flying colors.”

Jessie Stensland, editor of both papers, won six awards this year. She again received first place in the Editorial category for “Hospital board violation of OPMA is maddening.” She received first place in the Health and Medical Story category for “Hospital officials describe ‘new normal.’”

In addition, Stensland won second place for Government Story “Council votes on changing mayor pro tem,” second place in Animal Feature Story for “Elephant seals reveals its aggressive side,” second place in Crime and Court Story for “New juvenile justice law raises concerns” and second place in News of the Weird for “Talking turkey” about a South Whidbey man who had a pet turkey.