Shawnee graduate Andrew Lodge smashed a 27-year-old College of New Jersey school record Monday at the NJAC Championships.
Lodge ran 48.89 and finished 2nd in the 400 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ocean Breeze, behind only Rowan freshman Amara Conte of Jersey City and Ferris High, who ran 48.45.
Lodge broke the school record of 48.92, set by Toms River North graduate Chris Kalwinsky at the 1995 ECAC Championships at Boston University.
That 48.89 ranks No. 5 in NCAA Division 3 this year, although the TFRRS ranking system somehow has him at 49.68, which may be some sort of conversion for a banked track? I don’t know. It doesn’t explain it anywhere. In any case, the top 20 performers qualify for the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C., next month.
Lodge also ran a 49.54 leadoff leg on TCNJ’s 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:19.20. The Lions have run as fast as 3:20.19 this winter.
Lodge’s previous indoor PR was a 49.91 nine days earlier in Boston. Coming into the season, his indoor PR was 50.18 from a meet in Boston last winter. He has yet to run outdoors for TCNJ.
At Shawnee, Lodge only ran a couple indoor 400s with a best of 54.11 at the Bubble in January of 2018. His outdoor PR remains 50.88 from the 2019 Burlington County Open at Rancocas Valley, where he placed 2nd to Cinnaminson’s John Meekins.
So Lodge has now improved almost exactly two seconds since arriving in Ewing, and he hasn’t run a 400 outdoors yet.
Kalwinsky also holds the TCNJ outdoor 400 record with a 47.95 from 1995.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 