Daily Herald wins Lisagor awards for COVID-19, tornado reporting, sports photography

The Daily Herald has won three Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, a prestigious honor presented by the Chicago Headline Club.

A team of writers and photographers earned first place for deadline reporting in the annual contest. The newspaper's COVID-19 reporting and sports photography also received accolades during an awards banquet Friday night at the Union League Club of Chicago.

“It's always great to get recognition from one's peers,” Executive Editor Jim Baumann said. “And I'm so proud of the people we have to deliver the news, whether a major breaking story that requires a great deal of teamwork or yearslong coverage of an event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. And, of course, I'm always blown away by our photography.”

The Chicago Headline Club, the largest chapter of the national Society of Professional Journalists, named the awards in memory of Peter Lisagor, the former Chicago Daily News Washington bureau chief and columnist.

Here are our winners:

Best Deadline Reporting

• Katlyn Smith, Lauren Rohr, Scott Morgan, Jake Griffin, Marni Pyke, Russell Lissau, Paul Valade and Mark Welsh for “Aftermath of a tornado” on the twister that struck Naperville and Woodridge neighborhoods in the dead of night.

Best Sports Photo

• John Starks for “Made it,” an image that captured the midair celebration of a high school pole vaulter.

Best Health or Science Reporting on COVID-19

• Katlyn Smith for “Three times, it wasn't goodbye,” a story about a 25-year-old father who nearly died from COVID-19 three times.