Redmond High’s sports teams will compete in class 3A contests starting next fall, according to the school’s athletic director John Appelgate. From now until the spring season ends, the Mustangs will continue to play in 4A.

Redmond has played in 4A since the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) added the classification in 1997.

Due to 22 schools opting up to 4A, Redmond landed in 3A and decided not to try and opt back up. There are 65 class 4A schools and 65 class 3A schools, and Redmond sits at 66th on the 4A list.

“We chose to play where we ended up. We’ll embrace 3A for the next cycle (2016-2020) and see how we can do,” said Appelgate, who received the news on Wednesday.

The WIAA initially released the enrollment figures for students in grades 9-11 to the member schools in all classifications (1B to 4A) in November 2015. Each member school had a little over a month to review its figures and decide if it would opt up by the Jan. 13 deadline.

Appelgate said the change came as a surprise and noted that a host of schools opted up to 4A from 3A because of the revival of the old North Puget Sound League.

In 3A, Appelgate said, “We have the opportunity to renew some old rivalries with Lake Washington and Juanita.” Both those schools moved from 4A Kingco to 3A Kingco in recent years.

Redmond will still face 4A Kingco rivals like Eastlake and Woodinville in nonleague games.