Runners take off during the Class C boys championships last year in Cumberland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald Buy this Photo

The 2020 high school cross country state championships have been moved to Saxl Park in Bangor, the Maine Principals’ Association announced Tuesday.

The meets were originally scheduled at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast, which is part of Waldo County.

MPA assistant director Michael Bisson wrote in an e-mail that a change of venue was necessary after the Department of Education moved Waldo County into the “yellow” designation under its color-coded Health Advisory System for schools.

In the yellow category, which indicates an increased community risk, “schools may consider additional precautions, such as limiting numbers of people in school buildings at the same time, suspending extracurricular or co-curricular activities including competitions between schools, limiting interaction through cohorting, or other measures,” according to DOE guidelines.

Bisson wrote that the MPA cross country committee selected Saxl Park in an effort to keep the championships at a “northern site.” The state championship meets alternate each year between the north and south, with Cumberland hosting last year’s races.

The championships will be held over over two days, with the boys championships taking place Nov. 11 and the girls on Nov. 14.

Class C runners will go at 9:30 a.m., Class A runners at noon and Class B runners will race at 2:30 p.m. each day of the event.