BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Banner has won five journalism awards in the annual New England Associated Press News Executives Association contest.

The NEAPNEA awards will be presented Sept. 14 during the organization's annual fall conference and dinner meeting in Worcester, Mass.

Assistant Sports Editor Austin Danforth won two writing and a sports photography award, and staff Photographer Peter Crabtree won two awards for his photos.

Crabtree won in the Feature Photo category, placing third for a photo titled, "Ready to Dream."

He also won a second place in the General News category for a photo taken at the end of a Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union teachers' strike, titled, "It's over; back to school."

Danforth won a first place award in the Sports Action Photo category for a swimming photo titled, "Patriots boys, girls dominate New Lebanon."

He won a second place writing award for Deadline Sports coverage for a story titled, "Rice upsets Bulldogs on PKs."

And he won a second place in the Sports Column category for three columns titled, "Bradley puts Vt. golf on map;" "Champs don't lose final;" and "Father's Day show-stealer."

Banner Editor Jim Therrien said the awards show that staff members continue to produce excellent work despite the pressures of daily news and sports coverage on a small daily newspaper. The Banner is one of the smallest dailies in the NEAPNEA Class III category, for those with circulations of up to 16,000 circulation, yet has consistently performed well in state and regional contests over the past several years.

Also in Class III results announced Friday, the Banner's sister paper, the Brattleboro Reformer, won a second place staff award for continuing coverage of the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in Windham County, and a third place for editorial writing by staff member Bob Audette.

The annual NEAPNEA contest attracted 1,100 entries from 30 daily newspapers throughout New England. Visit www.neapnea.org for further results.