Four Kalispell high school journalism students won awards in the recent Montana Journalism Education Association contest.

Three students from Flathead High School’s newspaper, The Flathead Arrow, and one from Glacier High School’s The Howl won six awards in the annual competition that judges newspapers from high schools of all sizes throughout the state.

Flathead junior Alyssa Dillon took first prize in Opinion Writing for a piece on the school’s dress code, which she said was unfair.

“Alyssa is an extremely gifted writer/reporter and has a superb work ethic,” newspaper adviser Carl Hennell wrote in an email to the Inter Lake.

Dillon will be the paper’s lead copy editor next year, he added.

Junior Kylie Schlegel won two third-place awards, one in Sports Photography and one in the Sports Event category for “Crosstown game shakes gym.” Both entries covered the school’s home boys varsity basketball game against Glacier High; Schlegel’s photo captured Joe Pistorese in midair while driving for a layup.

“Kylie is a genuinely great person and is a pleasure to be around,” Hennell said. “She has a great work ethic.”

He said Schlegel will be the paper’s sports editor next year.

Rainona Lee, a senior, took second place in Advertising Design for an ad for Crevier’s Academy of Cosmetology Arts.

Glacier High junior Elise Jarvis finished in second place in Public Service Reporting. Her story, “How to handle emotion: Life gets crazy, but we need to keep things in check,” focused on counseling and other ways students can deal with overwhelming emotions.

The story also summarized the case of Justine Winter, the Glacier student convicted of causing the 2009 car accident that killed Erin Thompson, who was pregnant, and her 13-year-old son Caden Odell. Prosecutors said Winter was distraught and drove her car into Thompson’s.

Jarvis also took third place in Feature Writing for “From Ethiopia with love: New addition changes science teacher’s life,” a story about chemistry teacher Todd Morstein’s family’s adoption of a child from Ethiopia.

Newspaper adviser Ted Burnham said in an email to the Inter Lake that the Howl staff aimed to write more in-depth articles throughout the year and that the paper tried to include a broad variety of student and staff “spotlights” and other features.

“This year’s staff was a joy to work with,” Burnham said. “Every issue was better than the one before. It’s a pity we were not able to enter more articles from more students in the contest.”

The competition allows just one entry per category.