The Apple Leaf, Wenatchee High School’s student newspaper won Best of Show in the newsmagazine division at the Washington Journalism Education Association (WJEA) State convention at Shorewood High School in Shoreline on March 16.

The WJEA provides services to all high school scholastic journalism classes across the state and attending the State event provides student journalists with workshops on writing, editing, layout, photography and other topics.

Three Apple Leaf staff members won individual awards — A&E Editor Gabe Mercer (superior award in news feature photography), News Editor Emily Cieslak (honorable mention for review writing), and Online Editor Bryce Newberry (excellent in news writing).

“The entire event was a good experience. I went to Nationals last year and this State competition is just a smaller scale of it,” Cieslak said. “What I feel, however, when looking back at the results is how on a daily basis, we don’t realize how good of a quality paper we make.”

After winning four different awards at State, The Apple Leaf staff is now looking forward to Nationals. The Apple Leaf staff will travel to Nationals on April 10 in San Diego.

The WJEA hosts the State event every year.