MENOMONIE (WEAU) - Indians no longer, the Menomonie Mustangs are here to stay. After months of narrowing down mascot options, the Menomonie School District announced its new nickname at a pep rally on Tuesday.

High school students have waited with anticipation, but now the wait is over. Students will now represent the school as the Mustangs.

"It's such a big deal to so many people," Senior Lex Pelke said.

"I think Mustangs was very good," Senior Robert Buehler said about the decision.

After complaints about the use of race based nicknames were filed at other Wisconsin schools, the Menomonie School Board took action. It decided to change it's Indians mascot before it received any complaints.

"Rather than wait until that happened and further create a divisive situation in the community, they chose to move ahead. The process was carefully thought through and it's worked well for our community," Superintendent Christine Stratton said.

A final vote tagged Mustangs as the winner: beating out Mavericks and Lumberjacks.

"People will have fun with it. It's the start of homecoming so just something exciting and new and fun to do," Pelke said.

Superintendent Stratton says the mascot transition has gone smoothly and rather inexpensively thanks to the district's proactive approach.

"Today the students all got new t-shirts for the very first time that say Menomonie Mustangs so we are moving on," she said.

Despite differing opinions on the change, Stratton says the school has made history.

"You know there are still people who have a deep pride in the fact that they were a graduate of Menomonie High School and they graduated at point when we were using the Indian as a logo and mascot. No one can take that sense of pride away from them as a Menomonie graduate, but today is a new day," she said.

Now, the district will hold a logo design contest. Rules for that will be announced online on September 27th. Stratton says the school board will announced the winner on October 24th.