Community News Service, LLC, publishers of the Hamilton Post, Robbinsville Advance, Ewing Observer, Hopewell Express, Trenton Downtowner, Princeton Echo and Lawrence Gazette, and the mercerspace.com Web site, earned eight awards, including four first-place awards, in the annual Association of Free Community Papers awards competition.

Winners were selected from the more than 1,900 entries submitted in 41 categories.

The Hamilton Post won second place in the general excellence category, and mercerspace.com won the first-place prize for best presentation of news on the Internet.

Community editor Rob Anthes won first- and second-place prizes for original sportswriting for his stories, “Karagjozi lives dream in walk-off MCT win” in the Robbinsville Advance and “Steinert escapes West with a win” in the Hamilton Post.

Contributing photographer Suzette J. Lucas won first place in the news photography category for her photo of two wrestlers standing on their heads that appeared in the Hopewell Express.

Columnist Claudia Weldon earned second place in the column writing competition for her Hamilton Post piece, “Cyclists are a suburban menace.”

The Trenton Downtowner, also published by Community News Service, earned first- and second-place prizes for best cover design.

This was the fourth year Community News Service publications were considered for awards by the AFCP. The company won one award in 2008, six in 2009 and eight in 2010. This year marks the most first-place finishes CNS has received and is also the first time the company has received no awards below second place.

CNS publications have a total monthly circulation of 122,000.

The AFCP, founded in 1951, has more than 3,000 members. On the Web: afcp.org.