It brought a large number of participants and visitors to Hutchinson the past three years but it’s moving on elsewhere. The Topeka Expocentre announced at the Shawnee County Commission meeting Monday that it won the bid for the Kansas High School Rodeo Association Finals.

The event returns from Hutchinson after a 3-year hiatus from Topeka, where it once held 54-consecutive years of the competition.

More than 170-high school students participate in the event, bringing friends and family and business to Topeka. The win secures this event for the Expocentre from 2013 to 2015.

Le Ann Cox with the Hutchinson/ Reno County Chamber of Commerce says they will try to secure the competition again once the bidding process begins in two years.

The fairgrounds and the city will still host the event this June ending its three year run.

Cox says while the financial impact wasn’t a large number, it still brought a lot of people to Hutchinson adding that the state fair and the city truly embraced the event especially the downtown area which held special events for the participants.