Richard Montgomery and Montgomery Blair high schools were big winners in two Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) competitions for high school publications and individual achievement.

Richard Montgomery’s literary magazine, Fine Lines, won its fourth gold crown award in the last five years. The prestigious national gold crown award is given by CSPA to outstanding magazines, newspapers and yearbooks. Richard Montgomery was one of seven national magazine winners and the only Maryland gold crown recipient in any of the three categories.

Students from Montgomery Blair’s newspaper, Silver Chips, and Richard Montgomery’s magazine, Fine Lines: Streaks, swept the competition in their categories to win multiple CSPA Gold Circle Awards, given for individual achievement by student writers, editors, designers and photographers. Winston Churchill High School students also captured three Gold Crown Awards, two for its newspaper The Churchill Observer and one for the student yearbook, Finest Hours.

The annual competition attracted 10,642 entries from secondary schools throughout the nation, along with entries from colleges and universities.

Blair’s Silver Chips was Maryland’s top high school newspaper, winning eight Gold Circle Awards. Blair senior Eric Shansby was the big winner in the art/illustration category. He placed first in art/illustration portfolio, editorial cartoons, sports cartoons and comic cartoons. He also won second place for his cartoon portfolio and third place for editorial cartoons. Kang-Xin Jion won second place in the news features category, and Iris Flores won third place in feature page design.

Richard Montgomery magazine staff won nine Gold Circle Awards, again top in the state, for their work with Fine Lines: Streak. Jacob Liebenluft won first place in open (free) form poetry. Kate Rave won first place in closed (traditional) form poetry and Lesley Goodman won third place in that category. Sandi Burtseva took a first place for her nonfiction article. Rachel Gitajn, Lesley Goodman and Greta Pemberton earned a third place typography award. Rita Bergmann took second place for logos and endmarks. Sally Huang and Benjamin Maggin took first and third place, respectively, in the illustration category, and Greta Pemberton took first place in the single illustration that complements the content of copy.

Winston Churchill High School’s Danielle Zilberstein placed first in the news features category, for her work in The Churchill Observer, and Lisa Weinstein and Danielle Zilberstein placed third in the news writing category. In the yearbook category, Jon Minkoff, Allie Rubinoff and Robby Stein took the first place in the index category for Finest Hours.

Blair, Richard Montgomery, Churchill and Bethesda-Chevy Chase high school students also received certificate of merit awards in the Gold Crown competition.

In addition to the CSPA competition, Blair editors won five awards from the Quill and Scroll competition from the International Honorary Society for High School Journalists. Eric Shansby was declared a National Winner in the editorial cartoon category. Silver Chips editor-in-chief Stephen Wertheim and editor Kristen Hoven won for news stories. Editor Anna Benfield won for her feature story and editor Rachel Yood won for her editorial.

Richard Montgomery High School students also swept the individual awards in the magazine division of the Maryland Scholastic Press Association competition. In addition, the magazine, Fine Lines: Streak, received a “Most Outstanding High School Literary-Art Magazine for 2002” award from the American Scholastic Press Association.