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Midvale • The Utah High School Activities Association Board of Directors narrowly rejected petitions by East, Highland, Roy and Ogden to make changes in alignment of sports leagues for the 2015-2017 seasons on Thursday.

The board voted 12-10-2 against making any changes to the alignment it adopted at its December meeting.

East and Highland were placed in Region 5 under the new alignment to play against Bonneville, Bountiful, Box Elder, Ogden and Woods Cross.

Due to travel issues, the two Salt Lake City schools wanted to stay in Region 6, where all the teams are from Salt Lake County.

The UHSAA received 600 letters from East and Highland patrons lobbying against being in Region 5.

Roy, which has competed in 4A, including playing for the state football championship, asked to remain in that classification because of concerns that it cannot compete in 5A, where it has been placed under the new alignment.

The Royals remain in 5A's Region 1 with Clearfield, Fremont, Mountain Crest, Northridge, Sky View and Weber.

Ogden asked to be placed in 3AA North for football only, largely because the Tigers have struggled to compete in 4A due to declining participation.

Last season, Ogden lost its football games by an average score of 45-7.

Ultimately, the board elected in the case of Ogden to stick with a policy that does not take socioeconomic factors into consideration with realignment and to base alignments only on student numbers.

Many board members also did not feel East, Highland and Roy offered new reasons to petition for a change to the original alignment.

Twitter: @tribtomwharton