Four present and past Lebanon Express reporters and photographers took nine awards at the 2009 Oregon Better Newspaper contest.

Winners were announced last week at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association (ONPA) summer convention in Redmond.

All entries were published in 2008.

Reporter Michelle Steinhebel was named second place winner in the best writing category. Judging was based on three writing samples. Steinhebel's entries were "Relief effort volunteers fix homes in Port Arthur," published March 26; "Four downtown businesses latest theft victims," published April 30; and "Cat's leg amputated after BB gun assault," published Aug. 20.

Former Express reporter Rachel Beck took five awards.

She swept the best sports story category, winning first place for "Lebanon High School bowlers are on target," published Jan. 30; second place for "Warrior softball is playoff bound," published May 14; and third place for "Boyd Brothers keep each other on track," published Aug. 6.

Beck won another first place in the best news photo category for a photo of buffalo wandering on Snow Peak Drive, published on April 2.

In the best spot news coverage category, Beck took second place for "Pregnancy Center vows to rebuild," published Sept. 24.

Beck is now a reporter for the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

Former Express reporter Larry Coonrod won first place in the best educational coverage category. The award was for a four-part series on the resignation and buyout of former Lebanon school superintendent Jim Robinson: "Board calls on Robinson to resign," published Sept. 17; "Robinson quits after deal reached," published Oct. 8; "Senate panel skeptical of buyout," published Oct. 29; and "Lawyers paid $42,000 for Robinson buyout," published Oct. 29.

Coonrod now is editor of the South Lincoln County News.

Former Express photographer Robin Camp took two awards.

In the best sports photo category he won first place for a photo of Lebanon High School forward Josh Macklembourg in a football game, published on Oct. 8.

Camp took third place in the best feature photo category with "Big Boost: Caleb Rowland, 4, gleefully attempts to make a basket," published Jan. 23.

He operates his own photography business.

In the competition, 459 entries were chosen for first-, second-, and third-place awards out of 1,578 entries.

The contest was judged by members of the Texas Press Association.

ONPA, founded in 1887, is a professional association of the state's daily and nondaily paid-circulation newspapers.