The cavemen did it again. For the fourth year in a row, the editorial staff of The Bachelor trekked down to Bloomington, Indiana and drove back to Crawfordsville as Indiana’s best small college newspaper.
Even when compared to their three consecutive wins that preceded the Indiana Collegiate Press Association (ICPA) conference and awards last Saturday, The Bachelor won Division III Newspaper of the Year in dominant fashion. The Bachelor secured 21 awards — including 12 first-place finishes — for a total of 83 points in competition. The Record of Goshen College finished in second place with 50 points. Valparaiso’s The Torch won bronze with 19.
“I knew we’d had a good year, but was a bit surprised that our men won as many awards across so many categories,” said President’s Chief of Staff and The Bachelor’s staff advisor Jim Amidon ’87. “What our students accomplish without a formal journalism program says so much about their character and intellect. But Wabash men are also competitive by nature, and they take the ICPA competition seriously every year. Still, it’s rare for a single school to win Newspaper of the Year as consistently as Wabash does.”
The Bachelor faced challenging circumstances in the 2025 calendar year. The paper lost several key editors in the class of ’25, some that had guided the ship for upwards of two years, and entered the fall semester short-staffed. For former Editor-in-Chief James Wallace ’26 however, the key to maintaining an award-winning standard is to not think too much about awards season.
“You lose great talent through seniors graduating, and you need to split some focus between the recruitment and education of new staff members,” said Wallace. “So while the ICPAs certainly are important, they came second to keeping the standard of our newspaper as high as it has been. It just so happens that our standard is the best in the state, and the results speak for themselves.”
While The Bachelor has been lucky to have senior leadership from journalistic gurus like Wallace, first place could not have been secured without a total group effort. Ten individual students, including several non-editors, contributed winning content in addition to the two awards dedicated to the entire staff. While all sections won several awards, photography was a particularly strong area this year; Bachelor photographers combined to win first place in every photo category.
“Creativity and a sense of ownership of the paper fuel us,” said current Editor-in-Chief Elijah Wetzel ’27. “The biggest contributor to our success is the countless hours of selfless, unpaid work that our writers, photographers, editors and advisor put in each semester.”
With experienced senior editors training ambitious young talent, a standard of excellence has undeniably been set by the student voice of Wabash College. While some organizations falter after losing the veterans that once made it great, The Bachelor has not only maintained its high quality, but also raised the bar year after year. With this recipe for success so deeply instilled, the outgoing seniors that have only known victory at ICPAs can graduate satisfied that they leave behind a true dynasty.
“We’ve had such an incredible run of editors and writers over the years, and every May, I ask myself, ‘How are we going to replace this guy or that guy when August rolls around?’,” said Amidon. “And every year, the students at the helm commit themselves to upholding the winning tradition and improving on it.”