2026 Sub 5/Sub 6 Challenge: Indoors List
- Carson Vittorio
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
In the wake of the passing of Mike Newman, Illinois Running News is honored to carry forward one of the state’s most beloved traditions: the Sub 5/Sub 6 Challenge. This challenge has long been a staple of the Illinois distance running community, celebrating the pursuit of breaking the 5-minute mile for boys and the 6-minute mile for girls. With the blessing of Noah Lawrence, who played a key role in creating and shaping the original concept, Illinois Running News is committed to preserving the spirit and integrity of the challenge. Our goal is to continue highlighting the athletes chasing these milestone barriers while honoring the legacy that Mike Newman helped build within the Illinois running scene. We continue the same rules that Mike Newman created for the list!
“As track season approaches, I had an idea which I think could foster some excitement among our JV athletes and push us all to be better. Basically, the goal would be for each coach to maintain a list of the number of athletes on your team that break 5:00 for the 1600 over the course of the season. This would be an informal competition to determine which team is the "deepest."
I would send out an email to check in on March 1st, April 1st, May 1st, and finally the week of Sectionals (May 23rd) and will compile the results and update every one of the current and final standings. As it is a low-stakes competition, this would simply be self-reporting. You can count any kid that breaks 5:00 either in a meet or a time trial.
I think it could be a fun way to motivate our JV guys to hit that barrier and to make them feel they are an important contributor to the team. In the spirit of full transparency, we had 32 guys run sub-5 last track season, which bested our previous mark of 27 set the year before. I know some of you have smaller numbers of guys on the team, so perhaps we could also have a category celebrating the team with the highest percentage of team members who break 5:00.”
Noah Lawrence, Hinsdale Central HS , Hinsdale IL - 2014
**These lists only account for indoor marks only**
Sub 5 - Sub 6 Challenge: 2026
Challenge Guidelines
1– All performances must be done between December 1, 2025 until June 15, 2026. Personal Bests from previous seasons cannot be used.
2- You can break either 5:00 or 10:30 for Boys, 6:00 or 12:45 for Girls, in either a meet or a time trial. Coaches: you are on the honor system on this. If a time is performed in a relay, the performance will be allowed.
3- I will publish a final list will be published at the beginning of July.
4- ONLY COACHES from the individual schools may submit performances. We will not accept performances from athletes, parents, or media.
5- What was a tremendous help the past three seasons was the use by Coaches of Google Charts to keep track of their athlete’s performances. Coaches would send in the link for the Google Document. All I would need to do is check the school’s document for updates.
I ENCOURAGE YOU TO USE GOOGLE DOCS TO PLEASE UPDATE ME THIS WAY.
When you set up your document, please set up the fields in this order:
Name | Grade | Time | Meet | Date
Example:
FIRST NAME LAST NAME | 12 | 4:30.0 | IHSA State Meet – Charleston IL | 5/29
If you use Athletic.Net to keep track of your athlete’s performances, please let me know and I will pull the performances from there.
6- Indoor lists will be published at the end of March. A complete list of Illinois schools will be listed after the season (June 21).
How to Submit Performances / Contact Info
To submit performances for the
Sub 5 / Sub 6 Challenge,
please e-mail to: illinoisrunningnews@gmail.com