Daily Star Sports Editor Dean Russin earned a fifth-place finish in the 2005 Associated Press Sports Editors contest, the APSE announced Tuesday.

Russin’s story on a Sidney boys basketball player who was cleared of a drug charge following the arrest of his older brother for criminal impersonation rounded out the top five in the breaking news category for under-40,000 circulation newspapers.

Russin’s story, titled "Eric Dorsey cleared; brother charged," ran in the Jan. 19, 2005, editions of The Daily St[an error occurred while processing this directive]ar. It can be viewed in The Daily Star archives on the newspaper’s website, http://www.thedailystar.com.

Russin, who has worked at The Daily Star since 1999, placed second for brightest headline in the 2004-05 New York State Associated Press Association Contest and finished third in the 2001-02 NYSAPA Contest for sports writing.

Russin became a 2005 APSE top-10 finalist for the national contest earlier this month, as did Daily Star sportswriter P.J. Harmer in the under-40,000 game stories category. The APSE awarded places to the top five in several categories while the bottom five received honorable mentions.

Harmer earned an honorable mention for his coverage of the 2005 General Clinton Canoe Regatta. His story, titled "Corbin, Kolka win in a flash," ran May 31, 2005, and can also be viewed in The Daily Star’s website archives.

Sean Fuchs of the Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale, Calif.) and Michael Potter of the Virgin Islands Daily News tied for first place in under-40,000 breaking news.

Anthony Gimino of the Tucson Citizen finished first in under-40,000 game stories.

Former Daily Star sportswriter Ryan Lillis was part of a six-person group from the Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) that placed third in the under-40,000 projects category.

Newspapers were judged in circulation classes of under-40,000; 40,000-100,000; 100,000-250,000; and over-250,000.