The Landrum High School newspaper staff won top honors April 27 at the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association&squo;s Spring Conference. The staff of the Cardinal Cavalcade brought home an All-State rating and the Palmetto Award for being the best scholastic newspaper in Class 1, which consists of all schools up to 1,200 students in the school. This marked the third time in seven years that the staff has received the accolade.

&dquo;I was excited for the whole journalism staff when we heard the news that we won the Palmetto. Seeing all the larger schools that we were able to beat shows what Landrum is all about,&dquo; said junior staffer Isaiah Kirby.

Newspapers are evaluated based on reader assistance, overall visuals, features and news writing, opinion pages, and sports writing.

In addition, staff members competed in the Excellence in Scholastic News Awards. In this competition, students competed against students in schools with up to 1,500 students. Entries are judged in the fall and again in the spring and then the top three placements for those compete for overall yearly winners.

Senior editor Christina Taylor won first place in the state in Computer Graphics and second place in News Features. Junior editor Brittany Mahler took second place overall in the Feature Writing category. Sophomore staffer Christopher Downey placed second in Photography and the staff took third place for Centerspread Design for the Spring Competition.

At the awards ceremony,

SCSPA Executive Director Karen Flowers presented Taylor with a gavel to commemorate her year&squo;s service as the student president of SCSPA. Mahler, who served the 2008-09 year as Piedmont Representative, was elected to serve as vice president for the 2009-2010 year. Taylor and Mahler presented a session on the photo essay during the conference. &bsp;

&dquo;There were about 50 people in their session. I was so proud of how professionally they handled themselves. They really represented Landrum High School well,&dquo; said adviser Amy Goodwin.