AMES — Marshalltown senior Micah Blevins knocked nearly one minute off her season-opening time as she finished 48th as the Bobcats’ only varsity runner on Thursday at the 54th Kirk Schmalz Invite.

Blevins finished in a time of 21 minutes, 23.6 seconds over the Iowa State University Cross Country Course, a marked time drop from last Thursday’s 22:12.1 at the Bobcat Early Bird.

“Great improvement from last week,” MHS head coach Stacy O’Hare said, “and against tough competition.”

Class 4A’s top-ranked Addison Dorenkamp of West Des Moines Valley won the girls’ individual title in 17:31.9. Ankeny Centennial won the 11-team invitational with 54 points, followed by Valley (75) and Ankeny (98).

The Marshalltown boys’ squad finished last out of 14 scoring teams with 432 points, using all five of its runners’ places in the final tally.

Norwalk won a hotly contested team title with 82 points, just ahead of Waukee Northwest (88), Ankeny (89) and Cedar Falls (97).

The Bobcats were led by junior Anthoneih Kopsa, who clocked in at 17:54.1 for 73rd place. James Johnson was 85th in 19:04.6, Diego Tejada took 90th in 20:21.4, Reed Schwartz scored 91st in 21:17.4, and Ian Meyer finished 93rd in 22:25.2.