BERKELEY – California's athletic communications staff took home nine District 8 awards in the annual Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest that has been announced by College Sports Communicators.

The nine district awards are the most ever by any school in the country in a single year. College Sports Communicators began awarding honors for both winners and runner-ups for the 2021-22 season.

Associate athletics director for communications Jonathan Okanes and assistant athletic communications directors Cailyn Genewick and Michael Jorgenson each had winning entries while Genewick and Jorgenson also earned a runner-up award. Assistant athletic communications director Samantha Sunseri captured two runner-up honors while associate athletic communications director Kyle McRae and assistant athletic communications director Daniel Moebus-Bowles also picked up a runner-up nod.

Okanes won in the Coach/Administrator category for his feature about men's basketball head coach Mark Madsen while Genewick took first place in the General Feature discipline for her story called "Champions & Changemakers" – which looked at a group of Cal student-athletes who excelled in a Berkeley Changemaker course that examines sports and technology. Jorgenson won in the Social Justice/Diversity category for his Black History Month feature that examined efforts to increase diversity in the sport of water polo.

Sunseri's runner-up entries came in the Athlete Profile category for her story about star discus thrower Mykolas Alekna and in Event Coverage for her recap of hammer thrower Camryn Rogers winning the world championship. McRae was a co-runner-up in Event Coverage for his report on Jennifer Wong winning her first game as Cal's head lacrosse coach while Moebus-Bowles was the runner-up in the Social Justice/Diversity category for his inspiring story about women's soccer twins Amaya and Anysa Gray.

Only entries that were published during the 2023 calendar year were considered. This marks the third year in a row California's athletic communications staff has had the most awards in District 8, which is made up of schools from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, British Columbia and Yukon.