A bid to let the state’s top high school cross country teams compete in New England champions was tabled at the recent Maine Principals’ Association spring conference in Rockport.

Currently, top individuals at the state cross country championships can participate in regional competitions, but not full teams.

Interest has grown in recent years to change that rule, but no formal proposal was presented by the MPA’s cross country subcommittee at last week’s meeting, said MPA executive director Dick Durost.

Instead, the MPA’s interscholastic management committee had asked Durost and his staff to develop a draft proposal. What evolved from that request, Durost said, was a proposal to allow state championship teams from all four classes to compete in regional meets, then combine the results from all four state meets and re-score as if it was one meet in order to pick two additional representatives.

That proposal was referred back to the interscholastic management committee by a 26-17 vote of the MPA membership, Durost said.

That committee is likely to present either the existing proposal or some other version for the full membership to consider at its fall conference in November, meaning if a proposal is passed then it would take effect in 2005, Durost said.

Among other decisions, the MPA membership voted to move the Eastern A hockey final to the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, likely as a doubleheader with the Western A final. The Eastern and Western B finals will be played in Lewiston.

Durost said this format was created because of “concerns about having to turn people away,” given that some of the recent regional finals have been played in smaller venues. This year, for instance, the Eastern A final was played at Colby College in Waterville.

“We’ve had great relationships with all the facilities that we’ve worked with,” Durost said. “But we want to make sure we have large enough facilities for these events.”