Texas A&M Student Media was awarded seven national titles in late October, winning honors for The Battalion, Aggieland Yearbook and Maroon Life magazine.
The awards were released in a joint convention between the College Media Association and the Associated Collegiate Press, hosted in Louisville, Kentucky. The largest honor received by student media was a first place sports section Pinnacle award for the 2017 fall sports preview and coverage about the hiring of head football coach Jimbo Fisher.
Sports editor Angel Franco said the sports desk has been named a national finalist for the past three years.
“To finally be named the sports desk with the best sports section is a testament to our ability as a staff to produce quality stories for a readership who wants good stories to read,” Franco said. “I am proud of my staff for the dedication they put into covering sporting events in the midst of an academic semester. While the award is awesome, it doesn’t mean our work is done. We have to be better than ever now that we were given this honor.“

The Aggieland Yearbook received a second place Pinnacle award for best news page/spread. Yearbook editor in chief Anthony Pangonas said the awards received push the staff to work harder.
“It’s always an honor to be recognized at any level for our hard work,” Pangonas said. “Competing with our peers is just one way we always try to work harder than the last year.”
The Battalion also earned a third place award for best special section with less than five pages, third place award for best magazine sports page/spread, honorable mention for best newspaper front page, honorable mention for multimedia feature and honorable mention for newspaper page spread.
Student media general manager Doug Pils said the awards reflect characteristics he sees on a daily basis.
“The students who produce content for our publications learn how to work as a team of planners, writers, photographers, videographers and designers of high quality products that cover Texas A&M and its students, staff and faculty,” Pils, said. “It’s gratifying to see that judges in national competitions see the excellence I see every day from our students.”