Dage Minors has been named the Northeast-10 Conference Men’s Track and Field Rookie of the Week for the second successive week.

The freshman middle distance runner picked up the award after another outstanding weekend for Franklin Pierce University, this time at the Dartmouth Classic in New Hampshire. It is his third overall award of the season.

Competing in the both the 1,000 metres and 4x400 metres relay, Minors and his team-mates excelled in their respective events.

Minors, along with Antoine Gisore and Makopa Rugabirwa, ran three of the four fastest 1,000m races in the conference so far in the season.

He finished second in a time of two minutes, 29.61 seconds, the fastest mark in the Northeast-10. Gisore (2:31.35), and Rugabirwa (2:33.10) were third and sixth respectively. That performance was backed up by running the third leg of the relay, with the team capturing bronze in a time of 3:28.11. St Lawrence (3:24.67) won the race.

Minors said he was pleased with his recent form and believes he can only get better. “I can’t really focus too much on these regular season awards, in the coming weeks entering end of February and beginning of March is when I need to perform most,” Minors said.

“My form is all right at the moment. I think I’m definitely stronger than before but there is still a lot to work to be done so I can compete at the highest level.”

Rather than believing the recent success will place a bullseye squarely on his back, the freshman is using it as an incentive to continue the hard work that has gotten him thus far. An added bonus is his eligibility for the upcoming Carifta Games, where he will be one of the favourites in any event he chooses to run in.

The former Male Athlete of the Year for Vermont’s Indoor Track State Championships narrowly missed out on a podium place in the annual spectacle last year in the Bahamas, coming fourth in the boys’ under-20 800 metres.

“The awards are helping out my confidence a bit, but I also know that I have to continue to work hard in order to achieve the goals that both the coaching staff and I have set for myself,” Minors added.