Feature - 1st place - Members of the Greenon High School color guard warm up at sunset before performing at Friday night's football game against Catholic Central. (Barbara J. Perenic / Springfield News-Sun)
Feature - 2nd place - Shawn Hayes, of Columbus, sings along with the soundtrack Bad Reputation by Joan Jett at a bus stop along Hamilton Rd. in Columbus. Shawn calls himself an aged teenager and often comes to the bus stop to use it as a performance space. (Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch)
Feature - 3rd place - A couple enjoy a stroll across the bridge on a foggy morning that spans Big Walnut Creek at Three Creeks Metro Park . (Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch)
General News - 1st place - Lt. Brendan Lucas says goodbye to his wife Kimberly Lucas at their deployment ceremony at Grove City Nazarene Church. They married in July because of the deployment. (Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch)
General News - 2nd place - A man holds an American flag as he sits with nearly a thousand people in Freedom Grove in Urbana during a 9/11 Memorial Dedication Ceremony. (Bill Lackey / Springfield News-Sun)
General News - 3rd place - Attendance is sparse at Thistledown and the track is trying to find a way to survive and is hoping to install up to 2,500 video lottery terminals in the near future. Thistledown is waiting for legislation to pass on Oct. 17 to allow this to happen. (Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer)
Illustration - 1st place - This is the Map String Beans in a mild peanut curry sauce available at Map of Thailand, in Cleveland. (Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer)
Illustration - 2nd place - Cameron Wilson of Dublin and Joshua Perry of Olentangy High School bring star power to the 2011 high school football season. (Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch)
Illustration - 3rd place - This is brown rice available at Map of Thailand, in Cleveland. (Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer)
Portrait - 1st place - Terry Greenwood says gas drilling killed his livestock and ruined his 60-acre farm in the hills outside Daisytown in western Pennsylvania. Greenwood said he knew there was an old gas lease on the farm when he bought it in 1988. A former owner had signed with Peoples Natural Gas Co. in 1921. In 2007 a representative of Dominion Exploration and Production, stopped by to tell him that the company had purchased the 1921 lease and planned to drill two wells on his property. (Kyle Robertson / The Columbus Dispatch)
Portrait - 2nd place - Battelle engineer Joe Wagner with a robot he designed to inspect and repair the gas tank of B-52 bomber wings. Wagner is reflected in the input sensor of the robot arm that determines what is in front of it. (Neal C. Lauron / The Columbus Dispatch)
Portrait - 3rd place - Chef Jay Cotrell at M Restaurant. (Jeff Hinckley / The Columbus Dispatch)
Spot News - 1st place - An apparently unoccupied house near the Clark, Miami and Montgomery county lines exploded. Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were on scene and were looking to the basement and furnace areas as the possible location of ignition. (Marshall Gorby / Springfield News-Sun)
Spot News - 2nd place - Jim Neff and his son, Chad, carry a six foot tall emu from a wooded area after catching the flightless bird Sept. 19. The emu had escaped from the Neff's farm earlier in the morning and Clark County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene when the bird was reported running down New Carlisle Pike. (Bill Lackey / Springfield News-Sun)
Spot News - 3rd place - Members of the Springfield Fire Division battle at house fire. Firefighters arrived on the scene to find heavy smoke and fire coming out of the roof and windows of the single story house. The residents of the house were not home at the time of the blaze. (Bill Lackey / Springfield News-Sun)
Sports - 1st place - Toledo Rockets cornerback Kishon Wilcher (25) blocks a punt by Ohio State's Ben Buchanan (17) at Ohio Stadium. (Chris Russell / The Columbus Dispatch)
Sports - 2nd place - Thor Beckdahl (10) of Catholic Central gets kicked while defending the goal from Rylee Woods (7) of Greeneview during a soccer game at Hallinean Field. (Barbara J. Perenic / Springfield News-Sun)
Sports - 3rd place - Colorado Buffalo linebacker Douglas Rippy (3) tackles Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller (5) in the second quarter of their NCAA football game at the Ohio Stadium in Columbus. (Neal C. Lauron / The Columbus Dispatch)
Story - 1st place - Chesapeake rig near Harlem Springs, Ohio. Part of a three-day series on Fracking and how it will impact Ohio. (Kyle Robertson / The Columbus Dispatch)
Story - 2nd place - Lily's parents try to comfort her as a nurse accesses her port before the start of a MRI at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Lily's is sensitive to the smells involved in flushing her port and the skin around the port is very sensitive. (Chris Russell / The Columbus Dispatch)
Story - 3rd place - Aaron Clark holds up his 18 month-old nephew James Clark so his dad James Clark of the 134th Field Artillery Regiment on the bus can see him one final time at the deployment ceremony at Grove City Nazarene Church. (Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch)
