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COLUMBIANA -- The Columbiana cross country team won’t be having any home meets this season.
Construction at the Ward Athletic Complex has closed the new course and forced the Clippers to move their three home meets.
“Construction moved ahead of schedule,” Columbiana cross country coach Crystal Siembida Boggs said. “It started and affected the course. It was kind of unexpected. We had to find new locations.”
The Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference Meet on Tuesday, Oct. 6, has been moved to East Palestine City Park.
“EOAC has to have it,” Siembida Boggs said. “It was East Palestine and us and we had to go with who was available.”
She said the EOAC will still have a fifth- and sixth-grade meet and a junior high and high school meet.
United does not have a course available after construction at the new school. The last cross country meet United hosted was in 2022.
The other two meets -- a Suburban League meet on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and the 28th Clipper Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 17 -- have been moved to the Youngstown State course across from the Canfield Fairgrounds.
The changes also come with costs. Siembida Boggs said the rental fee for the YSU course, owned by the Mill Creek Metroparks, is $1,500 plus a per runner fee and a rental parking fee across the street.
The Mill Creek MetroParks board has to approve at its Sept. 14 meeting.
“They’re moving ahead with everything like they’ll say yes,” Siembida Boggs said.
She said the online registration site has been changed to indicate the new host sites. She said she also informed those who attended a Suburban League meeting last Thursday and emailed all the schools entered in those meet.
“We found out (Monday) as we were starting practice, the closing loop is completely gone,” Siembida Boggs said. “We did not know that was happening. The softball field (by the barn) is going to be bigger than they thought, from what I was told.”
The Clipper Cross Country Series just wrapped up four Tuesdays of races on Aug. 12 on the new course. Columbinana’s entire 2026 season will now be on the road with the recent change of the construction schedule.
As of now, the Clipper runner have nowhere to practice, either.
“We’re having a parent meeting on Thursday to try to figure things out,” Siembida Boggs said.
Columbiana opens the season on Saturday at the aptly named Billy Goat Challenge at McDonald’s Woodland Park.
“The senior girls wanted to go there one time,” Siembida Boggs said. “They’re district champions, they deserve to pick a race they wanted.”