The Record on Monday learned it has again received several awards from the New York Press Association, including first place for overall general excellence, as part of the 2013 Better College Newspaper Contest.

The Record also won second prize for Best Sports Coverage and executive editor Brandon Schlager earned an honorable mention award in Feature Writing for his story on Buffalo State graduate Kate Shaffer and her pursuit of a country music career, titled, “A Dream to Believe In,” which ran May 8.

Dozens of student newspapers from across New York State submit entries annually to the NYPA, which assesses the papers through a variety of categories ranging from column writing and reporting to design and photography.

The General Excellence award is the highest honor given in the contest.

One judge wrote: “Kudos to the staff at The Record. This takes first place for the combination of details: clean masthead, crisp and careful attention to typography, clean and breathability, well-written and informative and interesting columns, strong photos, decent balance of advertisements, and I really like the contributors’ headshots incorporated into columns. Nicely done.”

This is the second consecutive year The Record has been recognized by the NYPA. In 2012, the paper won first place for Best Sports Coverage and received an honorable mention for General Excellence.

This year, only newspapers from Ithaca College and Fordham University took home more awards than The Record.

“This is an outstanding accomplishment for our staff that serves to validate all our hard work over the past year,” Schlager said. “The General Excellence award is especially gratifying and is a testament to the incredible teamwork fostered by the 2013 staff, which featured an abundance of great people who are quickly establishing themselves as excellent professional journalists.

“On behalf of the staff here at The Record, we would like to thank the entire Buffalo State campus, especially the communication department, for its continued support,” Schlager said. “Without the editorial freedom and a superb working relationship provided by the faculty and administration, we wouldn’t be able to do our job: serve the students and staff of the Buffalo State community to the best of our ability. These awards are assurance that we are sufficient in doing so.”