Dage Minors is pumped up for this month’s Division II NCAA Indoor Championships where he will go head-to-head with compatriot Shaquille Dill in the 800 metres.

The Franklin Pierce University pupil earned a fourth trip to the championships last weekend at Boston University, where he set a new school record in the 800m with a time of 1min 49.76 sec, the fastest by a Northeast-10 Conference student-athlete this year, which ranks seventh in the nation.

Minors, who placed sixth in the 800, has also been named in his school’s distance medley relay team.

“This is going to be my fourth time competing at the NCAA Championships, and each time it feels good because it’s an honour to get there,” the two-times Carifta Games medal winner said. “My previous time had been 1:50.2 which had me sitting at eleventh, so I was confident I would get in [NCAA Championships] because they [NCAA] take the top 16.

“I’m happy to now be ranked seventh and this time I’m also running a relay, so there will be more incentive.”

The 2020 Olympic hopeful was relieved to finally break his school’s 800 record, which he always felt was within his reach.

“It was a lot of weight off of me after I broke the school record because I knew I could,” said Minors, the son of former St George’s footballer Delbert Minors. “I just wasn’t racing well enough when I had other chances.”

Minors, whose time was outside of his personal best in the 800, which stands at 1:49.4, got his tactics spot on.

“My strategy was to just sit off the leader and respond to what ever moves he makes because I knew it was going to be fast,” he said.

Another record that Minors has set his sights upon is the national 800 record of 1:46.26, which is held by Aaron Evans.

“That’s a long-term goal,” he said. “I think if I run closer to 1:48, I can look at running 1:46. But now that seems far away.”

Meanwhile, as well as competing against Minors in the 800 at this month’s championships, Saint Augustine pupil Dill is also competing in the 400m and 4x400 relay with his school, who are the top ranked team in the relay.

Dill, who holds the junior national 800 record, is ranked tenth in the nation in the 800 and seventh in the 400.

The Division II NCAA Indoor Championships will be held on March 11 and 12 at Pittsburg State University.