The Monroe County Advocate & Democrat was among the top performing newspapers in the Tennessee Press Association's 2012 State Press Awards, co-sponsored by the University of Tennessee.

The honors were announced in Nashville on Friday at an awards banquet.

The Advocate & Democrat staff writer Michael Thomason received second place for Best Personal Humor Column for a column called "Study shows men like to look at women" and staff writer Jessica Cross won second place for Best Personal Column for her "Can men and women be just friends?" column.

Former Sports Editor Corbitt Hollingsworth won a second place award for Best Sports Photograph capturing the Sweetwater High School boy's soccer team's district title win over Boyd Buchanan.

Cross, Thomason and Editor Tommy Millsaps as a collective news team won third place for Best Education Reporting. They submitted 10 articles covering a variety of education topics, including use of technology in local schools and new learning programs.

The Advocate & Democrat competed against numerous non-daily newspapers across the state for the awards.

Publisher Tommy Wilson said, "It is easy to take for granted the skill and dedication this staff demonstrates. They come in day after day and do their best to cover one of the largest counties in Tennessee. Our company and this county are fortunate to have these skilled people producing The Advocate & Democrat."

"It really takes a team effort to produce a quality newspaper that serves its community and our news team has great support from the rest of the staff," Millsaps said.