DES MOINES — Junior Bethanie Brown thought about making a move with six laps to go in the 5,000-meter run at the Drake Relays on Thursday, but her patience helped her secure the title in the event. 

She was in the lead pack for the majority of the race and made her move with about two laps to go, securing a first-place finish in 16:25.19.

The 2013 cross-country All-American competed in her first outdoor event in nearly two years April 16 at the Jim Duncan Invitational, where she finished second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:37.56. 

“I feel like I’m actually just hitting that point where I am actually back in shape,” Brown said. “[The 1,500 at the Jim Duncan Invitational] felt all out. It was kind of like my first workout and my first race at the same time, but it was really fun, and it’s more exciting to work out in front of an audience instead of by yourself on the track.”

Because she is from Maine, Brown hadn’t heard about the Drake Relays until she arrived at Iowa State. 

“It’s a really big deal,” Brown said. “A lot of people here, even just people I know from my church, they have tickets on Saturday because it’s really exciting to see all the elite athletes race.”

A lesser known group of ISU middle-distance runners entering the outdoor track and field season has continued to become anything but a secret weapon for the Cyclones. 

Erinn Stenman-Fahey finished fifth in the 800-meter run Thursday at the Drake Relays, clocking her third consecutive sub-2:10 time this season. Her teammate, Evelyne Guay, finished eighth in 2:10.17.

“[The race] went by pretty quick,” Stenman-Fahey said. “I led most of it and I just really lost steam the last 50 [meters] and got passed by [a few people], so that was frustrating. I was happy that I took it out aggressively. I just wish I had had a bit of a better finish.” 

The 800-meter event marked Stenman-Fahey’s debut at the Drake Relays, which she said was a lot of fun. 

“The atmosphere is great,” she said. “It was good competition, it was a good race.”

Neither Stenman-Fahey nor Guay started the outdoor season how they would have wanted, but both runners have been carrying momentum in recent weeks. 

Guay missed the first part of the season because she was sick, and Stenman-Fahey started the season with consecutive 800-meter times above the 2:10 mark.

Guay said she’s now at a place fitness-wise she has never been at before and proved that less than a week ago when she recorded a personal record in the 1,500-meter run at the Virginia Challenge despite the bell that singles the final lap ringing a lap early. 

“That really threw me off because people started to take off, and in my head I was thinking, ‘no, there’s two laps left,” she said. “I was looking up at the board, checking the time and I realized, no, this is incorrect, they rung the bell a lap early. It really threw me off and I fell behind, but I just dug in there and was able to catch back up a little bit and I got my personal best.”

Freshman Jasmine Staebler, who is another key piece to the women’s middle-distance group and ran the ninth fastest time in ISU history in the 800-meter run at the Virginia Challenge, did not compete Thursday.  

Freshman Emma Whigham, who owns the fourth best heptathlon score in ISU history, and senior Kaci Storm, who owns the fifth best heptathlon score in ISU history, completed competition in the event Thursday after competing in the first half of it Wednesday. 

Storm entered day two of the heptathlon in sixth place, while her teammate was tied for ninth. 

Three fouls in the javelin throw competition led to zero points for Storm, putting a damper on an otherwise strong performance for the senior competing in her final Drake Relays as a Cyclone. Storm finished with 4,221 points, placing her 14th overall. 

While Whigham didn’t break her personal-best mark in the heptathlon, she was able to build off of her record-breaking 200-meter dash performance Wednesday that resulted in her running one of the 10 fastest times in ISU history in the event. 

She placed in the top five in the javelin and 800-meter run, raising her point total to 4,753 and her standing to sixth overall.