It was a big night for staff of The Record - the official student newspaper of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University - at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest Awards Gala held Feb. 1 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Center.

For the first time since 2015 (2013-14 school year), the publication received the award for General Excellence in the college division - an honor that goes to the top college newspaper in the state.

The award was for the newspaper’s work during the 2022-23 school year. Second place went to the MSU Reporter at Minnesota State-Mankato and third place went to The Bark at Minnesota-Duluth.

“It’s honestly just an incredible feeling to see all the hard work we’ve put in come to fruition like this,” said Kelly Kieser, The Record’s current editor-in-chief. “We have an incredible staff, and our advisor Kelly Smith (a 2008 CSB graduate and a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune) is an awesome resource who is always helping us improve our editorials, design, photos and writing.

“So many people had a part in making this happen. It’s a huge honor.”

In addition to the general excellence award, the newspaper received 12 individual awards. They were as follows:

• Investigative reporting - Kate Fenske (first place).
• Local breaking news coverage - Jacob Gathje (third place).
• Human interest story - Hailey Johnson and Caitlin Salfer (second place).
• News photo - Kate Fenske (second place), Capri Potter (third place).
• Sports photo - Capri Potter (first and third place).
• Photo story - Eileen Otto, Kelly Kieser, Capri Potter and Molly Pults (second place).
• Business story - Jacob Gathje (first place), Kelly Kieser (second place).
• Arts and entertainment story - Amelia Kahlhamer (first place).
• Columnist - Ugbad Abdi (second place).

“It’s been a historic time at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s with the move to Strong Integration and the appointment of the first joint president of the two schools,” Kieser said. “So it’s super satisfying to receive this kind of positive feedback about the work we’re doing.”