Woodstown graduate Molly Lodge advanced to the final of the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division 3 Championships Thursday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Lodge, a Rowan junior, ran 1:01.91, the 8th-fastest qualifying time. She ran within about half a second of her PR of 1:01.33 from last week at the AARTFC meet at Cortland, N.Y.
Lodge also led off Rowan’s 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:47.29 and goes into the final as the No. 6 seed after barely qualifying as the No. 14 seed out of 16 qualifiers with a 3:48.08 from last week in Cortland. More on the 4-by-4 in a minute.
Rowan hasn’t bothered updating its list of outdoor track All-Americas in five years because why update a historical list when you just did it half a decade ago! But Rowan does list only two women who’ve earned All-America honors in the 400-meter hurdles: Laiton Roberts of Oakcrest was 3rd in 1993 in 1:02.75 and Melirah Searcy of Edison was 8th in 2015 in 1:02.68.
Click to access WOTF_All-Americans.pdf
Lodge never ran the 400-meter hurdles in high school or as a freshman in college. Her first race was in March of 2023.
She’s already a two-time All-America on Rowan’s 1,600-meter relay team, and she’ll have a chance at a 3rd when the Profs race in the 4-by-4 final at 7:50 p.m. Saturday.
Lodge led off the 4-by-4, Pennsauken’s Jasmine Pope ran 2nd, Kathleen Pederson ran 3rd with a 56.78 and Triton’s Nevaeh Lorjuste anchored in 55.30.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 