The National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) named three Iowa high school publications as Pacemaker finalists for 2011-2012. Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Torch and Iowa City West High’s West Side Story and are two of nine finalists in the newsmagazine category, and Iowa City High’s Little Hawk is one of nine finalists in the broadsheet 17+ pages category.

The NSPA Newspaper Pacemaker contest has awarded general excellence in collegiate newspapers for 85 years. Pacemakers are holistic awards that assess a year’s worth of a newspaper’s publications on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, layout and design, photography, art and graphics.

Riley Galbraith and Rachel Gilman were the Torch editors and Stacy Haynes-Moore is the adviser. Galbraith is a freshman at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Gilman is a freshman at Iowa State University in Ames.

NSPA will announce the winners at its national journalism conference in San Antonio, Texas on Nov. 18.