Normally, part of the reward for Eastern Connecticut Conference cross country runners who successfully complete a regular season is for those athletes to juxtapose themselves on the starting line at Norwich Golf Course on a Thursday in mid-October for the league championship meet.

A week and a half later, they do the same thing at East Hartford's Wickham Park for state championship Saturday. Joy and heartbreak transpire en masse.

Except that this year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which threatened to cancel the fall high school sports season altogether, the ECC meet has been canceled and regular-season meets will be scaled back, with each team limited to 15 participants.

But as Bacon Academy athletic director and ECC cross country chair Kevin Burke kept saying in a recent telephone interview, it's better to move forward safely than to take a step back.

"It's disappointing," Burke said of the cancellation of the ECC meet. "I think what we're all trying to do is provide the kids with something. Last spring the kids got nothing. I went through it as a parent (Burke's son Riley was a senior baseball player at Norwich Free Academy). I can feel a little bit more how players and parents feel.

"We want to keep kids safe but allow them to play the sports they do love."

The ECC's divisions change, with regional adaptations. Division I will feature all the former Division I and II teams in the southeastern part of the state, while Division II includes the former Division III and IV teams in southeastern Connecticut, plus Grasso Tech and Norwich Tech. Division III features many of the northern schools.

St. Bernard coach Juli Bassett, whose team was the Division III champion last year and fourth overall in the ECC championship meet, is a bit disappointed her athletes won't get to test themselves against the larger schools at the end of the season.

She's found somewhat of a solution to that.

"A lot of them do want to improve on their time," Bassett said. "In the past we've had (alumnae) Christina McCaffrey, Ellen Arvidson, Brigid Kunka. So even the other day they were doing a workout and I was able to tell them, 'These are the times Christina ran when she was a senior.' Comparing that way, that's all they can do.

"I actually think a lot of them were in better shape (coming back after the summer) than past years. They were just so bored (during quarantine), they just ran a lot."

The CIAC's cross country packet containing procedures for dealing with COVID includes the fact that starting lines should contain enough space to provide six feet between each team. If using numbered finish cards, the official dispensing them should wear a mask and gloves.

Fitch boys' cross country coach Rich Kosta feels that with running, one of the lower-risk activities for the fall season, comes a sense of normalcy.

"Luckily with us, practices have been pretty much the same," Kosta said. "You know what's different? Being at a school where you're used to there being so many things going on and it's just quiet. It's a very different atmosphere. They can't really socialize in school. There's no cafeteria. They eat in their classrooms.

"It's good for the kids on all the teams that are there to be able to get out and socialize."

NFA girls' coach Kara Kochanski-Vendola said she was nervous coming into the preseason. With such strict protocols being enforced, she wasn't sure her runners — broken up into red and white cohorts in accordance with the school colors — would maintain a social distance. Kochanski-Vendola is also required to take the temperature of every single athlete every day and keep it on a checklist, what she calls "a weird year."

But in addition to having one of the most competitive teams of her career, Kochanski-Vendola said the Wildcats have been easy to adapt.

"I think they're so excited to be out there, it's been a nice experience to end the day with a practice," Kochanski-Vendola said. "They're positive, enthusiastic. We're doing a good job as a team. It's disheartening for some of them; they know they want to get out and race. But the excitement is there.

"I think it's all going to work out."

v.fulkerson@theday.com