BOISE, Idaho — So close, but yet so far away.
That was the final outcome of SBLive Sports' competition for the best mascot in America for the Shelley Russets.
The Russets, with a Burbank Russet named Boomer as their mascot, finished a distant second in the nationwide contest behind the Rhinelander Hodags out of upper Wisconsin.
Idahoans know what a russet potato is, but what is a Hodag?
Well, it turns out it is a mythological lizard-like creature with horns and fangs, apparently from the woods of Wisconsin. It is also apparent they put up quite the campaign to pull in 63% of the votes to Shelley's 25%.
Still, Shelley got more than 72,000 votes, which is not bad for a town of just 5,000 people.
Gem State bragging right were also up for grabs with SBLive's online contest, as the Russets were not the only Idaho mascot ranked with the best of them.
The Camas County Mushers ended up in fifth place, with about 1% of the 291,000 votes.
Shelley may be the 11 seed in the 4A Idaho high school football state championship bracket right now, but they are No. 2 in the country when it comes to cool nicknames, because of Boomer.
The Russets face off against the Sandpoint Bulldogs up north on Friday in the state quarterfinals.
SBLive is a website dedicated to all things high school sports.
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