The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) has recognized The Crimson as one of the country’s top college newspapers, awarding the paper the group’s highest accolade and honoring Crimson reporters in several categories.

The Crimson was one of 21 recipients of the Pacemaker Award, the top honor bestowed by ACP. This year marks the third consecutive year that the paper has received the award.

Crimson writers also won individual awards in the categories of News Story, Feature Story, Sports Story, and Editorial/Opinion.

“I’m extremely proud of The Crimson,” Crimson President Kristina M. Moore ’08 said. “It’s been a banner year for us.”

Pacemaker entries are assessed on criteria ranging from coverage and content to quality of writing and design.

The announcements were made at the group’s annual convention in Washington, D.C. last week. Staff members of the Washington Post served as judges for this year’s competition, ACP contest coordinator Marisa M. Dobson said.

Other Pacemaker winners include the University of Pennsylvania’s Daily Pennsylvanian, The Tech at MIT, and The Collegiate Times of Virginia Tech.

“We haven’t won it in three years so it was definitely great to be awarded that distinction again,” said Shawn A. Safvi, the executive editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

According to Dobson, individual winners were chosen from more than 650 entries across the various categories.

Crimson news editors Daniel J. T. Schuker ’08 and Nicholas M. Ciarelli ’08, who first discovered their shared interest in journalism as freshman-year roommates, won first place in the News Story of the Year category for “A New Deal on Lifesaving Drugs,” part of a three-part series exploring how Harvard licenses its scientific discoveries to companies in the private sector.

The first-place honor in the sports category went to former Associate Sports Chair Pablo S. Torre ’07 for his story “How Fair is Fair at Harvard?”.

“This story was up against pieces from kids at places like Duke and Kentucky, two schools with fantastically active college sports cultures,” he said. “If people, especially students, think that there aren’t interesting and compelling sports stories and figures right here in the Ivy League, they’re sadly mistaken.”

Crimson Arts Chair Marianne F. Kaletzky ’08 was awarded second place for Feature Story of the Year, and Editorial Chairs Adam M. Guren ’08 and Brian J. Rosenberg ’08 were awarded an honorable mention for the Editorial/Opinion category.