By Triangle Staff
The Wingate Triangle won four awards in the annual North Carolina College Media Awards at High Point University on Feb. 24, including “Best of Show” in the Online category for schools with enrollments under 8,500. Individual awards were won by senior Maleah Funderburk (Newswriting), junior Aaliyah Shelton (Sportswriting) and December graduate Michael O’Neill (Sportswriting).
Wingate competed against the likes of online newspapers at Elon, UNC Asheville, UNC Pembroke, Queens and High Point in the Small Campus categories. The Triangle and UNC Charlotte’s ‘Niner Times (in the Large Campus category) were the only student publications in the Charlotte metropolitan area to win awards.
The NCCMA conference drew student media publications from almost every four-year school in the state, as far west as Brevard College and as far east as East Carolina and Elizabeth City State.
Triangle Editor Savannah Phillips, a senior English major from Kershaw, S.C., accepted the “Best in Show” award for Wingate.
Funderburk, a senior Communication/Journalism major from Monroe, won for a story on Wingate’s train-crossing accidents in 2023 and how the town and university were addressing the situation.
Shelton, a junior Communication/Sports Media major from Tamarac, Fla., was recognized for her article on Wingate’s 2023 NCAA championship-winning men’s cross country team. She offered a unique inside look at the the school winning its first national title in the sport, being a member of the Bulldogs’ women’s cross country squad that trains with them.
Monroe native O’Neill, who graduated from Wingate in December with a B.A. in Communication/Sports Media, won for his story on Wingate soccer player Nicole Cristy’s challenging college life of balancing nursing school with the demands of her sport.
“Our small staff competed against some very considerable college news-gathering operations in our category, especially Elon, UNCA and High Point,” said Triangle Adviser Scott Smith, a journalism instructor in the Department of Communication. “Our students have a lot to be proud of, especially our editor, Savannah. She has worked hard and it’s great to see her rewarded with a general excellence award like ‘Best of Show.’”
Smith also pointed to the contributions of Tess Regan, the school’s digital content manager in the Office of Marketing & Communications, as being instrumental in Wingate’s “Best of Show” success, thanks to the complete redesign of The Triangle website she did two summers ago.
The High Point conference included various panels and sessions throughout the day that Triangle staffers attended. Smith participated in a Faculty Advisers’ Roundtable.
The NCCMA was formed in 2007 and is based in the offices of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. It held the first N.C. College Media Conference in 2008 at UNC. Its annual Statewide College Media Contests include categories for student newspapers, yearbooks and literary magazines.
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