After six weeks of voting and more than 17,500 total votes cast, five winners have been announced in the 2016 Prep Rally Poll sponsored by IKEA Centennial.
Mountain Range High School (5A), Thomas Jefferson High School (4A), La Junta High School (3A), Wray High School (2A) and Heritage Christian Academy (1A) will each receive a $1,000 Mile High Sports Makeover* for a classroom in their school, courtesy of IKEA Centennial.
Voting was determined by classification, with the winners selected based on total votes within each classification. In total, 328 schools participated in the voting across all five CHSAA classifications.
Over the past two years, IKEA Centennial has partnered with Mile High Sports to support community schools and their sports and activities programs. All told, IKEA Centennial has given back more than $20,000 in cash and prizes.
“First, I’d like to thank everyone who voted for the first ever Prep Rally Poll sponsored by IKEA Centennial. We are absolutely thrilled with the participation – school spirit is alive and well!” said Megan Thompson, local marketing specialist for IKEA Centennial.
The top overall school was Mountain Range with 3,083 total votes. The Mustangs won the 5A classification by taking 46.8% of the vote. Broomfield was second with 25.7%.
The Mustangs, located in Westminster, have an enrollment of 1,964 students and compete in the Front Range league. Established in 2006, Mountain Range is the youngest of the five winning schools.
In 4A, Thomas Jefferson won with 34.5%, compiling more votes than second place Green Mountain (17.7%) and third place Ponderosa (16%) combined.
The Spartans compete in 21 boys and girls sports, including unified sports, and offer students and student-athletes a “Legion of Sparta” pass that gives unlimited access to sporting events and a special cheering section.
La Junta came on strong late to win 3A. The Tigers took 31.9% of the vote, with Salida (17.4%) and Manitou Springs (15.2%) rounding out the top three.
At La Junta High School, they believe life lessons of sacrifice, perseverance, responsibility, teamwork, and commitment are reinforced through athletics.
Wray was the victor in the tightest race in any classification, earning 25.1% of the 2A vote to edge Limon (19.2%) and Center (18.6).
Located in Yuma County near the Colorado-Nebraska-Kansas border, Wray has an enrollment of 196 with student-athletes competing in the Lower Platte league in nine sports.
Heritage Christian ran away with the 1A competition. The Eagles garnered 39.7% of the votes, far outpacing Idalia (8.2%) and Cheyenne Wells (7.5%) who finished second and third.
Heritage Christian Academy is an independent, private, non-denominational Christian K–12 school in Fort Collins with grades pre-kindergarten (four years old) through twelfth grade.
“Now comes the fun part,” Thompson said. “We are ready to dig in and get each winning school its Mile High Sports Makeover. Stay tuned for all the fun details with before and after pictures. Again, thanks to everyone for their participation and hard work. Congrats to the winning schools!”
*The Mile High Sports Makeover consists of the following: 1) $1,000 dollars in product from IKEA Centennial. 2) Free space planning and order management provided by the IKEA Business Consultants to be scheduled in January 2017. 3) Winning school must pick up merchandise from IKEA Centennial at designated time.
