×

Room To Run

Local Cross Country Teams Prepare For Different Season

Maple Grove cross country runners, from left: Lukas Baer, Ava Crist and Christina Peppy run during practice Wednesday at Long Point State Park. P-J photos by Matt Spielman

Cross country is one of the easiest sports to socially distance on a school-to-school basis.

Once invitationals, county and sectional championships, and state meets come into the picture that becomes a lot harder.

During a world shaped by COVID-19, that becomes a double-edged sword.

The Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association released its weekly cross country schedules Wednesday.

Where the season goes from here is anybody’s guess.

Members of the Maple Grove girls cross country team practice Wednesday at Long Point State Park.

“I had no clue it would last this long,” Maple Grove head coach Steve Matteson said of the coronavirus pandemic, which canceled spring sports. “Now at least they have something, even though it’s not what we were hoping for. They’ve been waiting almost 12 months now.”

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association has already ruled out state and regional championships for any fall sport.

“We had a heart to heart that night when we received that news,” Matteson said. “It was definitely a blow that definitely hurt our program. That’s one of the goals we have every season to try and get back there, and to end up on top at states. When that got canceled it definitely broke a couple more hearts.”

That leaves CCAA Championships and Section VI Championships as the highest level of achievement for runners this fall — but even those gatherings, where hundreds of runners and usually fans congregate around a 3.1-mile course are up in the air.

“We are still lucky to have very good competition in our section and in our county,” Matteson said. “CSP is a very good girls team. The goal is to race them the best we can because we’ll see them twice during the season as well as at counties and sectionals.”

Maple Grove cross country coach Steve Matteson gives instruction to his runners at the start of Wednesday’s practice at Long Point State Park.

The county championships are tentatively scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30 at Long Point State Park. The meet is scheduled to be run in waves with five teams running in the morning, five running at noon and five more running in the afternoon. After everybody finishes, the individual times will be merged to establish results. But Long Point, Lake Erie and Knox Farm are all state parks that are currently restricted to 50-person gatherings. Bemus Point Golf Club and Tap House, which hosted the Section VI Championships last season, has been mentioned as an alternative for Maple Grove’s league meets, the CCAA meet and even sectionals, but for now nothing is finalized.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do the top five teams in their own race,” Matteson said. “You’ll still want to compete for your team. You’ll stack up against individuals and teams trying to motivate yourself for that last championship.”

Also, the state Department of Health has said that sports should only happen between teams in the same counties or regions of the state as each other. NYSPHSAA has added that to include no intersectional competition, meaning popular races like the McQuaid Invitational and Manhattan High School Cross Country Invitational will not happen this year.

“We’ll have two more league meets because cross country has decided that invitationals would be too difficult to run with multiple teams,” Matteson said. “We’re trying to keep our meets smaller at three or four teams and have eliminated Saturday invitationals.”

With no weekend invitationals, CCAA will take advantage of the Saturdays to run regular meets. Each CCAA team will run Tuesdays and Saturdays from Oct. 6 through Oct. 27.

At Maple Grove, those large invitationals and state championship meets are usually crowning achievements both individually and as a team.

“I’ve talked to some of the younger kids … and explained to them that it’s a great experience to work on league meets and to work on 3.1 miles instead of the modified distance,” Matteson said. “We’ll get stronger each year.”

Just last fall, the Red Dragons girls team finished second to Section IV-Delhi at SUNY Plattsburgh and all five of those Maple Grove runners were underclassmen.

They were led by Ava Crist, now a senior, who finished sixth with a time of 18:08.3. Fellow classmate Christina Peppy finished 10th for the Red Dragons (18:16.6) while Abby Brunenavs, now a junior, was 15th in 18:30.2. Tori Pavlock, another senior this season, was 40th (19:39.4) while Hannah Tarbrake, a junior this year, was 48th (20:20.4).

“Ava and Tina, I could not have asked for better captains at this moment, right now,” Matteson said. “It’s been hard on them because they have goals they really wanted. … They are leading by example and keeping spirits up even though it’s hard for them to keep their own spirits up sometimes.”

On the boys side, Maple Grove lost Peter Auer, Riley Auer and Darius Jones to graduation, but still returns junior Lukas Baer, who finished 27th in 16:14.9 at SUNY Plattsburgh.

“The boys team is extremely young. … We have seven freshmen,” Matteson said. “Boys are notorious for getting better each year. … It’s good for the young guys to at least get this experience, because come sophomore, junior and senior year they’ll be the big guns.”

CCAA Cross Country

Tuesday meets at 4:30 p.m., Saturdays at 10 a.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 6

Silver Creek/Forestville, Dunkirk at Fredonia

Maple Grove, Southwestern at Clymer/Sherman/Panama

Jamestown, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley at Frewsburg

Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Gowanda at Randolph

Franklinville/Ellicottville, Allegany-Limestone, Salamanca at Olean

Saturday, Oct. 10

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley, Allegany-Limestone at Maple Grove

Fredonia, Southwestern at Clymer/Sherman/Panama

Silver Creek/Forestville, Olean at Frewsburg

Randolph, Gowanda at Jamestown

Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Dunkirk, Salamanca at Franklinville/Ellicottville

Tuesday, Oct. 13

Silver Creek/Forestville, Frewsburg at Maple Grove

Fredonia, Southwestern at Jamestown

Dunkirk, Clymer/Sherman/Panama at Falconer/Cassadaga Valley

Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Randolph at Franklinville/Ellicottville

Gowanda, Allegany-Limestone, Salamanca at Olean

Saturday, Oct. 17

Maple Grove, Southwestern at Fredonia

Allegany-Limestone, Clymer/Sherman/Panama at Falconer/Cassadaga Valley

Franklinville/Ellicottville, Gowanda, Salamanca at Frewsburg

Randolph, Dunkirk at Silver Creek/Forestville

Olean, Cattaraugus-Little Valley at Jamestown

Tuesday, Oct. 20

Silver Creek/Forestville, Southwestern at Falconer/Cassadaga Valley

Fredonia, Frewsburg at Clymer/Sherman/Panama

Jamestown, Dunkirk at Maple Grove

Allegany-Limestone, Franklinville/Ellicottville at Cattaraugus-Little Valley

Gowanda, Randolph, Salamanca at Olean

Saturday, Oct. 24

Allegany-Limestone, Southwestern at Jamestown

Randolph, Fredonia, Salamanca at Falconer/Cassadaga Valley

Maple Grove, Gowanda at Clymer/Sherman/Panama

Dunkirk, Frewsburg at Silver Creek/Forestville

Franklinville/Ellicottville, Olean at Cattaraugus-Little Valley

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Clymer/Sherman/Panama, Jamestown at Silver Creek/Forestville

Maple Grove, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley at Fredonia

Dunkirk, Southwestern, Gowanda at Frewsburg

Olean, Salamanca at Cattaraugus-Little Valley

Randolph, Allegany-Limestone at Franklinville/Ellicottville

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today