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DES MOINES, Iowa – When it comes to collegiate track & field, the Drake Relays stage is about as big as it gets. Thousands of fans fill Drake Stadium, dozens of media flock to Des Moines to cover the meet, and college and professional athletes post some of the top times in the nation annually.
 
At the 105th running of one of the nation's premier meets, the team wearing green and yellow from Fargo, North Dakota, earned its fair share of the spotlight.
 
It started mid-morning on the blue oval when North Dakota State senior Antoinette Goodman, freshman Morgan Milbrath, senior Ashley Tingelstad and junior Paige Stratioti raced to a Drake Relays title in the 1600m medley relay. NDSU's winning time of 3:47.73 cut over four seconds off the school's previous all-time best performance. The Bison quartet stands at fifth in the NCAA this season in the event.
 
Running a pair of 200s, Goodman and Milbrath covered the first lap in 47 seconds. Tingelstad turned in a 53.5 split for her 400m leg, and Stratioti rallied from fourth to first on her 800m anchor leg in 2:07. With 150 meters to go in the race, Stratioti passed the runners from Baylor and Arkansas and could not be caught, pulling away down the home stretch.
 
"I knew I had it for my teammates," Stratioti said. "It's easier running with a baton. I don't know what it is, but it gives you a euphoric feeling competing for your teammates. I kicked it into gear, found my gear and took it home."
 
The list of schools to finish behind NDSU in the medley relay was an impressive one: Arkansas, Baylor, Iowa, Ohio State, Utah, Nebraska and Washington filled out the top eight finishers in the event.
 
None of them could catch the Bison.
 
"We've been the runner-up a few times at Drake," said NDSU head coach Ryun Godfrey. "We've been close, but today – even looking at some of the teams that were in there – we knew we had a good chance to win one. When you're going up against Arkansas and Baylor and programs of that caliber, obviously they have a good chance to win it, too."
 
The result was the first Drake Relays title for NDSU in the school's Division I era.
 
Later in the afternoon, Stratioti, Milbrath, Goodman and Tingelstad capped the weekend with yet another school record in the 4x400m relay. The Bison placed fourth in 3:34.56, improving on the previous school record of 3:34.64 set on Friday in the prelims. Baylor, Arkansas and Notre Dame finished 1-2-3 with times that rank among the top 10 in the nation, while the Bison stand at 12th in the country.
 
Stratioti spoke on her team's growth and the emergence of the Bison women's program on the national scene this season.
 
"Before this year, (the Drake Relays) might have felt like a lot of pressure, but we qualified for NCAAs in the 4x400 indoors, so that has given us a lot more confidence," said the junior from Duluth, Minn. "We believe in each other, we know what we are capable of, and we were confident heading into today."
 
In the distance medley relay, Faith Kruchowski, Ashley Heinze, Ashlynn Simon & Erin Teschuk ran the school's second-fastest time ever at 11:33.97, taking eighth place overall. By less than one second, the quartet missed what would have been NDSU's third school record of the day and fifth of the meet.
 
At the end of the day, Godfrey reflected on the record-setting weekend and the medley relay victory.
 
"I look at these girls and the number of records they have set, and it's remarkable," said Godfrey. "The Drake Relays are a big stage. This is the icing on the cake for them to come here and win a relay title. I know it was one of the few remaining things left on their to-do list. They went out and did it."