The Nashville Ledger, Knoxville Ledger and Hamilton County Herald took 13 first-place awards Thursday in the annual Tennessee Press Association competition, with the Knoxville Ledger and the Hamilton County Herald winning “general excellence” as the top papers in their circulation categories.

“We’re so proud of how all three papers performed in their categories,” said Lyle Graves, associate publisher and executive editor for the three publications, headquartered in Nashville.

“We have had great success in previous years, but never two general excellence winners in the same year. It’s a tribute to our great writers, designers and editors.”

The Nashville Ledger won first-place awards for:

• Best business coverage: Hollie Deese, Tom Wood, Richard Courtney, Joe Morris and Jim Myers. Judgers’ comments: “By far the strongest entry,” and “I saw a lot of excellent art, layout and design and a good choice of story topics.”

• Best single feature: Wood’s “Nothing but the Truth,” a feature on private investigator Sheila Wysocki. Judges’ comments: “Excellent writing and storytelling. Fantastic lead. I enjoyed how the author wove in backstory details.”

• Headline writing: Lyle Graves’ “Next 440 makeover will kick asphalt. Plastics, solar panels, thermal roads pushing out old technology”

Second-place awards:

• Best personal column: Tim Ghianni’s “Tough to say goodbye to ‘damn nice guy’ I called Dad." Judges’ comment: “A very touching tribute to the writer's father. The guy lived more than most of us will ever have the opportunity to.”

• Editorials: Joe Rogers

• Makeup and appearance: Leigh Singleton and Mike Hopey

Third-place awards were earned for best feature photo, best sports coverage, community lifestyles and local features.

Hamilton County Herald first-place awards were for:

• Best education reporting: David Laprad and Kathy Carlson

• Best single feature: For Laprad’s humorous look at the souvenirs and knickknacks displayed in the offices of Chattanooga-area attorneys (http://hamiltoncountyherald.com/Story.aspx?id=10155&date=1%2F25%2F2019)

• Investigative reporting for Tom Wood’s look at how downsizing minor league baseball would affect Chattanooga and other cities in East Tennessee

Knoxville Ledger top winners were:

• Best business coverage: Joe Morris, Hollie Deese, Nancy Henderson, Jim Myers and Kylie Hubbard

• Best education reporting: Morris, Deese, Henderson and Sheila Burke. Judges’ comments: “All of the finalists contributed exemplary education coverage to their communities, but The Knoxville Ledger was just a cut above the rest. Deep reporting on complicated topics like school voucher programs and fun, in-depth profile pieces on educators made for a winning combination.”

• Best graphics and/or illustration: Mike Hopey. Judges’ comments: “Absolute fantastic work with the variety of content. Each graphic made me curious and I ended up learning something.”

• Best news reporting: Sheila Burke and Kathy Carlson

• Best sports writing: Rhiannon Potkey for “The kid everybody loved,” her feature on Tennessee football player Marquez Callaway

• Community lifestyles: Henderson, Myers and Tom Wood

• Headline writing: Lyle Graves. “Red planet, Green light: UT students repeat as finalists in NASA’s Mars water-mining competition”