Call it a four-peat!
For the fourth year in a row, the editorial staff of The Bachelor earned best small college newspaper honors from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association (ICPA).
Compared to the three consecutive wins that preceded it, The Bachelor’s 2026 ICPA Division III Newspaper of the Year title came in dominant fashion, securing 21 category awards — including 12 first-place finishes — for a total of 83 points in the competition. Goshen College’s The Record finished second with 50 points, while Valparaiso University’s The Torch finished third with 19.
“Winning a fourth consecutive ICPA for a DIII paper was an incredible honor,” said Managing Editor Nolan Ellenberger ’26. “I am most proud of upholding the high standard that our predecessors set and satisfied that the knowledge and skills for publishing award-winning news on a weekly basis is passed down to the next generation of talented and capable student journalists.”
The Bachelor faced challenging circumstances in the 2025 calendar year. The paper lost several key editors in the Class of ’25 — some of whom had served in editorial and leadership for more than 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 was not to 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, who completed his coursework in December. “The ICPAs certainly are important, but 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 leadership from journalistic mentors like Wallace, first place could not have been secured without a group effort. Ten student staffers, including several non-editors, contributed winning content in addition to a pair of staff awards. While all sections won multiple awards, photography was a particularly strong area this year, with Bachelor photographers placing first 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 editors training ambitious young talent, a standard of excellence has been set by the student voice of 91自拍. The outgoing seniors – who have only known victory at ICPAs – will graduate, leaving behind a lasting legacy and a deeply instilled recipe for success.
“What our students accomplish without a formal journalism program says so much about their character and intellect, said President’s Chief of Staff and The Bachelor’s staff advisor Jim Amidon ’87. “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.”