INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The winner and finalist of the I Love to Read Challenge were officially announced Friday during Daybreak.

The I Love to Read Challenge encourages safe competition among classrooms with a focus on both personal effort and collaborative achievement. WISH-TV is in proud partnership with the NCAA’s Readers are Leaders Program, which aims to get elementary school students excited about reading. The I Love to Read Challenge is sponsored by Rascal’s Fun Zone.

This year, 62 classrooms in 35 different schools across Indiana joined the challenge and the students racked up more than 1.2 million minutes of reading!

The finalists in the I Love to Read Challenge were Mrs. Janelle Quinn from Western Intermediate School in Russiaville and Mrs. Sharon Ashmore from Columbus Christian School in Columbus, Indiana.

Mrs. Sharon Ashmore, the teacher whose third-grade class won this year’s competition, explained how hard her students pushed themselves every week.

“Myself and Mr. T — he’s our third-grade assistant — we’ve been giving them pep talks every week to gear them up for their challenge. Last week, when we found out we were in the final, Mr. T told them, ‘If you want to have it, you’re gonna be in it to win it,’ so we were trying to tell them to give us everything you have. This last weekend, they just pushed and pushed and pushed. They were taking books everywhere with them and I even talked to the parents and I think some of them were even sleeping with their books at night.”

Mrs. Ashmore, after the winner was revealed:

“It’s amazing. We just had so much support from all of the staff and the administration here, and, especially, their parents. But I really need to say thank you to Mr. T because he was a really good force with this group. We also want to thank WISH-TV for having the competition because it was a fun motivational tool to help with the IREAD-3 preparation.”

Runner-up, Mrs. Quinn tells News 8 about her students and how hard they’ve worked during the challenge.

“This class has been amazing. I could not be prouder of them. They have worked really hard for the last two months. It’s really sad to see the challenge come to an end, but my hope is that this will instill lifelong readers for life.”

The winner of the I Love Reach Challenge will receive a championship trophy, two-hour unlimited wristbands from Rascal’s Fun Zone, a pizza party for their classroom from Hot Box Pizza, a classroom library refresh from Scholastic books, tickets to the NCAA Hall of Champions, books for all the students a teacher’s shopping spree at Teachers Treasures.

Quinn’s class earns a runner-up prize package with books and tickets to the NCAA Hall of Champions.