Central High School's broadcast journalism team -- Central Intelligence -- cleaned up at last weekend's national convention in St. Louis. The team brought home more than 20 awards, including first place in the nation in Overall Best in Show.

The annual high school contest, hosted by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association, drew over 5,000 students from 48 states and 381 schools.

Central High came out numero uno.

"This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us," said adviser Nichole Lemmon, adding that she lost 17 seniors from last year. "It really speaks to the high standards and work ethics we have here."

To hear sophomore broadcast engineer Mitchell Trafford tell it, winning the grandest prize was a bit nerve-racking for the CI team of 27 students.

"They called out 10th through seventh place, which would be normal for us," Trafford said. "Then they called out sixth through third place, and we started to get worried."

The Central students began to realize that it was all or nothing.

When they were announced as the No. 1 Overall Best in Show, Trafford said, they erupted in screams and cheers.

"I just heard 'Cen' and I started screaming," Lemmon said.

It was Central's first time being recognized for the heralded broadcast award. Among the 20 individual awards, seniors Drew Sampson and Nicole Young brought home first for their broadcast feature story on Haley Stevens, a Central student recently stricken with ALS.

Their story provided an update of his condition and promoted the ALS walk last September, Young said.

"It was really special that we won because of Haley," said Young, who is planning on studying film at University of Missouri-Kansas City next year.

CI staffers Will Pearson and M.K. Byrne, both seniors, won a second place award for an on-site broadcast package they did on Saturday. Students competing in the category were given the theme "St. Louis -- A City on the Move" and expected to create an original, professional broadcast piece.

"The adrenaline of the imminent deadline clears your mind and helps you to focus," Pearson said.

The pouring rain added to the challenge, said Byrne, who is also the news director. So they kept their cameras dry by filming a story about the hotel's valet parkers.

Lemmon's broadcast program had humble beginnings eight years ago, when she taught out of a bathroom. There was one camera and one editing bay.

The CI studio is now a bustling state-of-the-art newsroom with 10 high-end cameras and 15 bays.

The technical aspect of broadcast journalism has become a strength for CI, Byrne said, but other schools will eventually catch up in that regard.

Going forward, their focus will be on more investigative stories.

"We want to be more aggressive with our story ideas," she said, "and take on stories that might be more controversial."

Byrne added they had taken on sensitive topics in the past -- like gay students at Central and the nutrition in the cafeteria food.

The school administration has been very supportive in the past, with a couple of exceptions, Lemmon said, but good journalism requires "pushing the envelope."

"If I'm not getting called into the office about our stories," she said, "they're not doing their jobs."