Photo by Ron Szot The Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association cross country championships are today at Bemus Point Golf Club and Tap House.

BEMUS POINT — Three separate waves of runners will take to the links of Bemus Point Golf Club and Tap House today for the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Cross County Championships.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the races have been divided into three different time slots, with the morning session beginning with the modified race at 9 a.m., girls varsity at 9:30 a.m. and boys varsity at 10 a.m.

Allegany-Limestone, Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Fredonia, Jamestown and Maple Grove will lead that first heat.

Following the same format, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley, Frewsburg, Gowanda, Olean and Southwestern will begin at 12 p.m.

The third wave will include Clymer/Panama/Sherman, Dunkirk, Franklinville/Ellicottville, Randolph, Silver Creek/Forestville and Salamanca starting at 3 p.m.

Team winners for each wave will be crowned, in addition to overall team winners compiled from a master list of finishing times

“We thought of about 10 different metrics,” Maple Grove head coach Steve Matteson said of the organization process. “What we ended up doing was getting feedback from each coach, what time slot they would prefer. It was lucky that five teams wanted the early time slot, five teams wanted the medium and five schools wanted the late time slot. It just worked out that way.”

Despite organizing the races based on time preferences, the day’s matchups should still make for several competitive matchups.

“The first boys individual race will be very good, because Allegany-Limestone has three really good boys. Jamestown has Drew Carlson, and for us, Maple Grove has Lukas Baer. So there should be five really good individuals,” Matteson said. “Then the middle race, the boys between Falconer/Cassadaga Valley and Southwestern should be a really tight race.”

Also entering Friday with strong seasons are Ethan Luce and Nate Lewis of Southwestern as well as Joey Pillittieri and Joe Krenzer of Falconer/Cassadaga Valley.

Ryan Wisniewski and Daniel Casey will look to have strong finishes for Allegany-Limestone.

Maple Grove enters the day with a trio of strong girls runners, including Ava Crist, Christina Peppy and Abby Brunenavs.

Acacia Barber will look to have a strong finish for Frewsburg, Marie Lemay enters with a strong resume for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley and Angelina Napoleon leads the way for Allegany-Limestone, while Tayden Persons and Eve Johnson will lead the way for Clymer/Sherman/Panama.

The good news with a week of wet weather in the books is that the 5-kilometer course in Bemus Point offers some of the best drainage available.

“The prep is going great,” Matteson said. “With all of the rain that we’ve had the Bemus Point Golf Course is probably one of the only places that can take how much rain we’ve had in the last week. It looks great, also Bemus Point Golf Course has been very helpful in blowing the leaves a couple of times throughout the week when it was dry. So that kept most of the leaves off the course and then we came down and blew the rest of them. It is a little more wet than normal, but I still think that it is probably the best course that we can run on in the Western New York Region.”

Spectators will be required to wear face masks and present spectator passes in order to enter the event.