IU Southeast's Gus the Grenadier wins RSC Mascot Challenge, IU East runner-up
FLORENCE, Ky. -- IU Southeast's Gus the Grenadier is the inaugural River States Conference Mascot Challenge champion after he came out on top in the social-media voting conducted this past week and concluding on Saturday.
Gus the Grenadier claimed his victory with a win in the final-round voting held on the RSC Twitter page on Friday and Saturday. Going up against three other schools in the finals, Gus came out with a clear victory when he claimed the highest percentage of the more than 1,100 total votes cast in the final. He had nearly 400 votes and 35% overall.
As RSC Mascot Challenge champion, Gus moves on to the NAIA Mascot Challenge, where he will represent the conference as our top seed at nationals. The national competition will be conducted in March as part of the NAIA Division II men's and women's basketball national tournaments.
Rufus the Red Wolf from IU East will also move on to nationals at the NAIA Mascot Challenge after finishing runner-up in the RSC. Rufus claimed a tiebreaker-victory over Black Diamond the Bison from Point Park to advance to the national bracket. Both Rufus and Black Diamond had 24% of the vote in the final round, which set off a tiebreaker to determine the conference's second bid to NAIAs.
Rufus advanced and claimed runner-up honors by taking 63% percent of the vote in the tiebreaker head-to-head versus Black Diamond. Alice Lloyd also reached the finals and placed fourth overall. Talon the Eagle received 17% of the vote in the final round of four mascots.
The NAIA will announce the 32-mascot bracket for the NAIA Mascot Challenge this coming week. Be sure to vote for Gus the Grenadier and Rufus the Red Wolf in the national competition.