The Battalion received 26 awards this weekend at the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association competition, including a first-place award for overall excellence.
TIPA, a statewide college media board, holds contests among university-level student-run magazines, radio and television programs, yearbooks and newspapers at its annual convention. 
The Battalion, a daily student-run newspaper, competed in Division I and received awards recognizing articles, columns, graphics, photos and page designs published in 2014.
Aimée Breaux, managing editor for The Battalion and applied mathematical sciences junior, won first place in the general column and critical review categories as well as second place in the opinion page design category. Breaux said while some newspapers might produce content influenced by what they think TIPA judges will want to see, this is not the focus of The Battalion.
“Our main purpose throughout the year is to provide content we think students on campus want to read and need to read,” Breaux said. “So for us, TIPA is a matter of taking a day aside and just reflecting on the past year’s worth of issues and really trying to see what our strengths are — and what our weaknesses are — and build on that.”
Mark Doré, editor-in-chief for The Battalion and English senior, won four page design awards and an honorable mention in the sports column category. The Battalion’s combined points across all categories earned it the sweepstakes award.
“There are some categories that we don’t do as much of, but it shows the strength of our publication that we had several good, strong contenders for many different categories,” Doré said. 
John Rangel, science and technology editor for The Battalion and aerospace engineering junior, won first place in the headline category and third place in news feature category. Rangel said he was pleased to see science and technology content place in three categories, as the section is new to The Battalion this year. 
“I think winning these awards serves as an affirmation of how many stories are in science and technology at A&M,” Rangel said. “A&M has such huge engineering and science colleges so there’s plenty of stories out there that relate directly to it and now we have more capability of doing more in-depth reporting of them and the students involved in them.”
Breaux said a first place award in overall excellence is testament to the work the entire staff puts into The Battalion on a daily basis. 
“There are lots of categories that individuals win, but overall excellence reflects not just on editors, not just on a single writer, but on everyone’s ability to design pages, edit them, put in legwork, interview people and think critically about the content we’re producing,” Breaux said.