MONMOUTH, Ill. — For the fifth year in a row, members of the editorial staff of Monmouth College’s student newspaper, The Courier, have received awards from the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA).

According to senior Dan Bredfield of Mahomet, editor-in-chief of The Courier, copy/layout manager Zach Muhrer, a junior from Chicago, and features editor Brandon Athey, a sophomore from Urbana, shared a first-place award in the division of feature page design.

Sports editor Matt Troha, a senior from Joliet, received a second-place award for a sports story he wrote last fall about a football victory. Both awards were for non-daily college newspapers throughout Illinois.

The Courier also received three honorable mention awards from the ICPA, including one in the division of front page layout, which was accredited to Muhrer and Bredfield; the second for another sports news story authored by Troha; and a third to photographer Anna Koenig, a senior from Hinckley, for a photo essay.

The awards, presented earlier this month in Chicago during the annual convention of the ICPA, were part of the 2003 Awards for Excellence in Illinois College Newspapers competition. The competition is sponsored by The Chicago Tribune, The Daily Herald, Copley Press Inc. and the ICPA.

Founded in 1983, the ICPA has 38 member colleges and universities throughout Illinois. Its purpose is to stimulate greater interest and development in journalism and to raise the standards of journalism among its member institutions.