Chinook Sugarbeeters win regional mascot competition

The Chinook High School Sugarbeeters have won a regional, eight-state competition, and again are advancing to a national tournament.

The Sugarbeeters took a commanding lead in USA Today High School Sport's Best Mascot competition after the second round of the contest was extended due to server overload, and won the competition by more than 320,000 votes after the second round closed today at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.

The Sugarbeeters won with 2,767,229 votes, with the Pratt High School Greenbacks of Pratt, Kan., taking second with 2,442,257.

In third place was the New Castle Dogies of New Castle, Wyo., with 306,588 votes.

The Sugarbeeters took their name when the owners of the Chinook sugar beet processing plant helped pay the way for the Chinook High School basketball team, then known as the Tigers, to compete at a national tournament in Chicago after Chinook won the state championship in 1929.

The national competition, where the Sugarbeeters will face the winners of the other five regional contests, begins at 1 p.m. Thursday. People can place their votes on the USA Today High School Sports website at http://contest.usatodayhss.com/.