By Joe Battaglia, NBCOlympics.com

After a whirlwind few days in New York City for the Millrose Games, pole vaulter Stacy Dragila was looking forward to returning home to Idaho. But when she boarded the plane at LaGuardia Airport on Feb 2., Dragila didn't know she would be flying home to the surprise of a lifetime.

While Dragila, who hopes to compete at the Beijing Olympics, was on the East Coast competing at one of her favorite meets in her comeback from double Achilles surgery, her boyfriend, top-ranked U.S. discus thrower Ian Waltz, was in San Diego plotting an elaborate marriage proposal.

"I was totally surprised," Dragila said. "I was flying home to Pocatello on Saturday and Ian wasn't supposed to come up until Sunday night. Beforehand, he was complaining that he was going to miss the Super Bowl and the greatest game of all time. When he said he didn't want to come up Saturday, I thought he was too cheap to want to change his ticket."

That was just the first of many well-executed diversions by Waltz.