Award-winners Aiden Brill ’26 (top) and Lexi Holland ’26—who took top honors for, respectively, the sports reporting category and best magazine cover of the 2025 College Media Association Pinnacle Awards—review a layout of CAT. 5 magazine. Courtesy of Aiden Brill ’26
The staff of The Current, Eckerd College’s student newspaper, and CAT. 5, Eckerd’s student magazine, earned eight national journalism awards—including three first-place honors—at the annual College Media Association Pinnacle Awards in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16. Both periodicals are produced by Triton Student News Publications, the student media organization at Eckerd College. This year the CMA, which serves more than 600 colleges and universities, received a total of 3,358 Pinnacle Award entries across eight categories.
Aiden Brill, a senior communication major from Decatur, Georgia, and sports editor of The Current, won first place in sports feature writing for “Every Body Belongs,” a story about body image and the fitness culture at Eckerd. It appeared in the May edition of CAT. 5. He also won honorable mention for a CAT. 5 profile of legendary Eckerd College Hall of Fame baseball coach Bill “Skip” Mathews ’79, now the College’s associate director of athletics.
“At one point everybody struggles with body image,” Aiden explains. “With ‘Every Body Belongs,’ I thought I could do some justice by trying to show how you can come out on top. I talked to students; student-athletes; coaches; and Kate Daigle, Eckerd’s executive director of counseling, health and advocacy services, about the mental health aspects. This is such an important topic that’s not talked about enough. Hopefully we can turn a negative into a positive.”
The Eckerd students were led by Janet Keeler, Ed.D., visiting assistant professor of journalism and communication and faculty adviser to Triton Student News Publications.
“I worked very hard on that piece,” Aiden adds. “I polished it over and over, and it’s probably the best piece I’ve ever written. When Professor Keeler texted me that I had won, she wrote how proud she was of me. She saw my idea and pushed me further because she knew it was worth it. And it was.”
Alejandra López Rueda, a senior animal studies and biology student from Coyoacán, Mexico, took first place in the breaking news category for her story “Eckerd Community Cautiously Optimistic After State Park Plan Shelved,” and seniors Lexi Holland and Jessie Lotze shared a first-place award for best magazine cover, the May edition of CAT. 5. Lexi, who designed the cover, is an animal studies student from Scottsburg, Indiana, while Jessie, who took the photograph, is an ancient studies and visual arts student from Sandpoint, Idaho.
The theme of the CAT. 5 cover was The Identity Issue, and the stories inside explored “What makes you, you.” Lexi says she and Jessie wanted to illustrate a topic that can be hard to deal with and difficult to talk about. “This [the cover] turned into my baby,” Lexi says. “And it’s insane to have it recognized. It gives me such a great avenue to pursue design, something I never thought I’d be able to do. The first cover I did was in the fall of 2024, and it was horrible. But I have so many copies of this one.”
Tida Bagby, a senior visual arts student from Inlet Beach, Florida, took second place in editorial illustration; and Donovan Snell, a senior ancient studies and animal studies student from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, placed third in the general news photo category.
Izzy Merl, a sophomore environmental studies and film studies student from Irving, Texas, also placed third in the arts and entertainment features category, while Nicole Vogler, a senior creative writing and film studies student from Allen, Texas, earned an honorable mention award in the general feature writing category.
“The awards are a reflection of the energy and effort the students bring to The Current and CAT. 5,” Keeler says. “There was a lot of passion that went into this. And it shows that they have mastered a lot of important skills—like critical thinking, synthesizing information and being able to work with a team.
“I’m always proud of the staff because they have so much other work to do, but they carve out time for this.”
