Stephen Kyvelos of Manalapan made an impressive season debut and Ivy Slavinski of Point Pleasant Boro continued her strong sophomore season when the Shore Conference duo ran the fastet times at Saturday's Fall Classic at Thompson Park in Jamesburg.
Kyvelos, a senior who is one of the top XC runners in the state, won the boys Large School race in 16:26. Kyvelos was pushed by Howell junior Michael Card, second in 16:30, the fastest time he's ever run any course.
As a junior last year, Kyvelos won the Monmouth County title, finished first in Central Jersey, Group 4, was second at the Shore Conference Championships, and ran a Holmdel PR of 16:12 when he was 14th at the Meet of Champions.
South Plainfield used its superior compression to win the boys Large School team title on a sixth-runner tiebreaker with Rancocas Valley after both teams finished with 61 points. South Plainfield, who also finished first in the scoring merge, went 8-11-13-14-15, averaged 18:20, and had a 1-5 split of just 28 seconds. Rancocas Valley countered with a 4-5-6-18-28 and averaged 18:11. The deciding factor was South Plainfield's No. 6 man finishing 18 scoring places ahead of RV's.
Anthony Oryniak won the boys Small School race in 18:24 to lead Spotswood to the team title. Spotswood, who went 1-4-7-9-12 and averaged 19:12, finished sixth in the merged scoring.
On the girls side, Slavinski ran the fastest time when she won the Small School race in 19:23, and junior Sadie Honig of Manalapan was the only other girl under 20 minutes with her winning time of 19:56.3 in the Large School Division.
The 19:23 by Slavinski, fourth in Ocean County, 10th at the Shore Conference Championships and third at the Group 2 State Championships as a freshman last year, is a 15 second drop off her previous best on this course. She ran 19:38 last year when she finished third at the Central Jersey, Group 2 Championships.
Honig's 19:56 is 42 seconds faster than her previous best of 20:38 at Thompson, which she ran at the Central Jersey Championships last year,
In the girls team competition, the Princeton outscored Sayreville, 53-73, to win the Large School title and they averaged 21:53 on their way to first in the scoring merge. Princeton finished 2-3-13-17-18 and put six runners ahead of Sayreville's No. 4 runner. In the Small School Division, South Plainfield went 2-3-5-6-7-8 to edge Point Pleasant Boro, 26-29, for the team championships. Point Boro finished 1-4-5-9-10.