BluePrint senior writer Abi Eckenrod narrowly missed out on a state championship Wednesday at the Pennsylvania School Press Association (PSPA) state journalism contest at Penn State University in State College.
Eckenrod, writing in the feature stories category, scored a 34 out of a possible 40 points, 1 point behind champion Gabe Myers of Emmaus Highschool.
“It was such a great time! I had no intentions of going in and doing as well as I did,” said Eckenrod. “I truly did feel a little out of place among all the very established journalists, but placing as well as I did made me feel a bit better about it.”
Abi was one of three Blueprint writers competing, including senior Jordan Hescox and senior Chloe Brown.
Chloe, competing in the blogs category, will submit her entry later this month.
All of the writers qualified by winning PSPA regionals at Juniata in November.
Contestants in all categories began the day by attending a press conference at the HUB featuring Penn State Assistant Athletic Director Sarah Hissing. After listening and asking questions for an hour, students then took their information and in 45 minutes composed a news, sports or feature story.
It was a pressure-packed situation, BluePrint advisor Mr. Naylor said, which makes Abi’s performance even more remarkable.
“Abi went in with a solid gameplan but made a change when it came time to write her story and it paid off. Her true talent all year in Blueprint has been feature writing so this is no surprise,” Mr. Naylor said.
Abi is the BluePrint’s second top 3 finisher at states in the last two years. In 2023, current editor Olivia Hess finished third in the category of news writing.
