Keep css classes from options in original dropdown list

I’m trying to implement Select2 into my web application and all but one thing works well. I have one dropdown list where I show a team hierarchy and based on which level that team is on the background is colored.

I understand that the result list is new but I am wondering if there’s a way to get the css class of each of the list options to follow to the new dropdown list? This is the code for one of the options in the “old” dropdown list:

/start option value=“345” class=“group-level-1” data-select2-id=“4”>Team 1 /end option
/start option value=“400” class=“group-level-2” data-select2-id=“4”>Team2 /end option

These two should have different background colors, but this is overrun by select2 dropdown. Is there a parameter I can use to add the classes to my new DDL? I have 8 different classes I need to pass through.

Cheers,
Jarno