PISCATAWAY -- Izaiah Brown made history in the Big Ten track and field championships on Saturday, posting a conference-record time (45.32) in the 400-meter event.
But the biggest race of the Rutgers sophomore's life was measured in lives saved -- not seconds on a stopwatch.
Days before he was set to begin his sophomore year at Rutgers, the Amsterdam, N.Y., native experienced tragedy. His two-family home in the Albany suburb was destroyed by a fire.
According to authorities on the scene, Brown's actions saved lives.
"I believe in total, upstairs and downstairs, there were eight people,'' Officer Allen Drake of the Amsterdam Police Department told the Daily Gazette (N.