2nd Place – Sports Feature
Catherine Turner, 16, of Franklin County, waits to throw shirts to spectators during the Salem Red Sox game against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on April 13, 2012. REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

2nd place – spot news
Edward Hicks pauses in frustration as his girlfriend Angela Legans (back) gathers up belongings from their apartment. The couple are on their way to stay in a hotel after almost 24 hours after a snowstorm knocked out power to their apartment on Gilmer Avenue SW in Roanoke, Virginia. KYLE GREEN | The Roanoke Times

3rd place – mobile phone photo
Members of the Rockbridge County football team sprint up a hill during practice. REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

1st place – Feature picture story
Wanda Perdue, who worked at Stanley Furniture for 37 years but was laid off in 2010 and is now working part time at Wal-mart, looks over coupons with her husband Jerry in their trailer home. Perdue applied for 50 jobs in the five months following her Stanley layoff without getting a single call back for an interview.

Skyla Taylor, 2, of Roanoke, spins the Wheel of Misfortune in “What’s in Our Bodies” exhibit. The wheel had the possibility of spinning to ticks, bed bugs, mosquitoes with malaria and more. Photo by Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times

Drivers make their way along flooded Salem Avenue in downtown Roanoke after a heavy downpour on Monday afternoon. Photo by Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times

Killian Forbes, 7, watches the board after putting his opponent in check Sunday during a match sponsored by the Roanoke Chess Club. Photo by Don Peterson/Special to The Roanoke Times

Patrick Henry players (left to right) Rob Brailford, Javier Espinosa, Alek Brown, Thomas Stockstill, Jimmy Butler and Britt Dunnavant celebrate winning the WVD championship. Photo by Don Peterson/Special to The Roanoke Times

Reigning Miss Jabberwock Jasmine Keeling watches the opening processional from the side of the stage at the Jefferson Center. Photo by Joel Hawksley/The Roanoke Times

Hidden Valley’s Ceyda Durmaz returned to high school tennis with wins in both the singles and doubles finals. Photo by Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times

Competitors in the boy’s 110m hurdles clear the first set during a Western Valley District track meet at William Fleming High School in Roanoke on Wednesday. Photo by Joel Hawksley/The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech graduating student Emily Moonan turns and jumps to touch the Hokie Stone as she leaves Lane Stadium after the 2013 spring graduation ceremony held on Friday in Blacksburg, Virginia. Photo by Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times

Koyuki Azuma, 4, of Roanoke County, plays tag with her dad along Jefferson Street during the Local Colors Festival. Photo by Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times

Cave Spring senior Nick Brediger reacts after nearly hitting a hole-in-one during a practice round for the Scott Robertson Memorial Tournament at Roanoke Country Club on Thursday. Photo by Joel Hawksley/The Roanoke Times

Warren Craft, from William Fleming High School splashes into the sand on his winning triple jump of 45 1 1/4″ at the Cosmopolitan Invitational track and field meet held at William Fleming High School on Saturday. Photo by Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times

Highland School sophomore Ali Granato (left) and North Cross School senior Lynsey Barker chase the ball down the field during their game. Highland School won 2-0. Photo by Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times

Melody Hirsch laughs as she plays a game of “Shut the Box” with grandsons Elijah Jackson (left), 8, and Kai Patterson (right)), 11, at the home the family shares in Moneta,. Bob and Melody Hirsch are raising their two young grandsons after their daughter dropped them off one night and never came back. The couple was awarded primary physical custody and joint legal custody with the mother of the boys.

Jonathan Agee’s family members and friends, including Agee’s wife, Julia Angell, console each other in the courtroom after his sentencing. He was given three life sentences for first degree murder, attempted capital murder and aggravated malicious wounding.

Sparks fly as Fabricator Ricky Phoenix of Newcastle welds a motor cover at Apex Industrial Equipment in Salem on Thursday.

Elizabeth Plunkett (from right), 9, her brother John, 7, and Jasamine Perry, 5, stand outside of what was their home in Southeast Roanoke. They lived in an apartment in a house in the 800 block of Jamison Avenue. A white Ford Explorer crashed into a home in southeast Roanoke this morning, sending the Plunketts’ mom to the hospital. “I was up and I seen something coming through the window and I saw smoke,” Elizabeth said. “And now my mom’s in the hospital. If my dad hadn’t been right next to her, my mom would have died.”

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Conservation Police Officer Francis Miano surveys New River water levels just below Claytor Lake Dam near Radford on Tuesday.

Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Registered Nurse Melissa White reunites with 15 month old Jurnee Kasey as mother Dionne Kasey (right) laughs in the background. Jurnee was born premature at 25 weeks, weighing 1 pound 10 ounces. Melissa was one of the RMH NICU staff who cared for Jurnee when she was a patient. “I am just so thankful that (the RMH N.I.C.U.) was here. It really is a blessing”, said Jurnee’s mom Dionne. Family and friends of children who passed through the NICU last year celebrated with NICU staff at HoneyTree Early Learning Center – Riverwalk Saturday during a a birthday party celebration. The NICU has been holding these yearly birthday celebrations since the 1980′s.

A 1941 Vulcan steam engine pulls away from the Virginia Museum of Transportation passenger deck Sunday in downtown Roanoke.[Sunday May 12 20013 – A 1941 Vulcan steam engine pulls away from the Virginia Museum of Transportation passenger deck in Roanoke Sunday. The Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society charged three dollars for rides behind the oil fired steam engine whose whistle could be heard all through downtown over the weekend during Roanoke Railfest.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation provided fans with the opportunity to ride the Vulcan 0-4-0T steam locomotive number 17 with the New Hope Valley Railway group on Sunday along a downtown track from the museum on Norfolk Avenue. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times