Andrew Lodge’s crazy improvement from high school to college continued Saturday when he broke 22 seconds in the 200 for the first time.
Lodge never broke 23 seconds at Shawnee.
Lodge’s time is No. 3 in TCNJ history, behind four-time All-America Eric Green from Clifford Scott High in East Orange, who ran 21.34 twice in 2002 – in the trials and the finals of the NCAA Division 3 Championships in St. Paul, Minn., where he placed 4th (the race was won by William Paterson’s Robert Hargrove from Vineland) – and Chris Medina of Monsignor Donovan in Toms River, who ran 21.85 at TCNJ’s own Last Chance Invitational in Ewing in 2012.
It was his first outdoor race ever for TCNJ and his first outdoor 200 in nearly three years.
Lodge’s time is No. 3 in TCNJ history, behind Eric Green, who ran 21.34 in 2002, and Chris Medina, who ran 21.95 in 2012.
That 21.93 is also No. 18 in NCAA Division 3 in the early going this year and No. 1 among NJAC sprinters.
At Shawnee, Lodge ran 24.29 as a freshman in 2016, 23.51 as a sophomore, 24.04 as a junior and PR’d with a 23.09 for 12th place in 2019 at the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea. He did run 50.88 in the 400, good for 2nd place in the County Open at Rancocas Valley behind Cinnaminson’s John Meekins.
At TCNJ, Lodge ran 22.83 indoors as a freshman in 2020 in a meet in Boston and also PR’d at 400 meters with a 50.18 at the same meet.
This past indoor season, he had a breakthrough in the 400, setting an indoor school record of 48.89 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ocean Breeze, taking 2nd behind Rowan’s Amara Conte, who ran 48.45, but he didn’t run the 200 at the conference meet (although he did lead off TCNJ’s 3rd-place 4-by-4).
He did lower his 200 PR to 22.46 in Boston, but he only ran the open 200 twice.
But this weekend he PR’d by more than half a second in his first outdoor 200 since the 2019 Olympic Conference Championships at Washington Township, where he placed 3rd in 23.19.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 