Salina Post
The Kansas Scholastic Press Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 KPSA Regional Journalism Contest, which awarded the best student journalism from more than 1,800 entries across the state.
In the Regional Contest, students competed in 27 different categories and 11 different classifications organized by geography and school size. Students who finished first through sixth place earned the chance to compete in the state contest.
From Salina High School South, the following students won awards:
- Senior Oscar Cortez Perez, News Writing, 1st; Review Writing 5th.
- Senior Percy Hulsey, Advertising Design, 5th; Headline Writing, 5th; Review Writing, 6th.
- Senior Kristen Kinion, Multimedia Storytelling, 1st; News Page design 1st; Editorial Writing, 5th.
- Senior Izabell Perez, Multimedia Storytelling, 1st; Digital Illustration, 2nd.
- Junior Taliyah Koster, Sports Action Photography, 5th.
- Freshman Alec Easterday Sports Action Photography, 4th; Sports Feature Photography, 5th; Sports Media Photography, 4th
“Regionals push students to tackle a variety of challenges as they write stories on deadline or craft content to meet contest prompts,” KSPA executive director Barbara Tholen said. “I’m always impressed with the creativity that students bring to these contests.”
KSPA enlists the help of journalism teachers, professional journalists, university faculty members and other journalism experts to judge the entries. In addition to receiving feedback on their own entries, students will also get to see compilations of winning work.
That feedback can help guide students as they prepare entries for the KSPA State Journalism Contest. Based on results from the State Contest, KSPA will determine the sweepstakes trophy winners — the top schools in 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A. Students who finish in first through third place at state receive medals.