By Michael Newman

One of the many things that hit me hard during the spring of 2020 was the lack of track meets due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. I was also saddened by the fact that we were not able to complete the seventh edition of the Sub 5 – Sub 6 Challenge for last season. I had thoughts of doing it, but there were so many variables that would not let us complete it safely.

We are now in March of 2021. Conditions are improving. Track Meets are being conducted safely. It looks like every state will crown state champions this spring.

I am happy to announce that ILXCTF.com will sponsor the Sub-5 / Sub-6 Challenge for the 2021 Track & Field season. This is the eighth year of doing this program.

The idea is the Sub 5/Sub 6 Challenge is the brainchild of Hinsdale Central Head Track Coach Noah Lawrence. In a letter that Noah sent to me when the program started in 2014, he stated:

“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.”

Going under 5 minutes for the mile is a memorable moment in a runner’s life. It is a forever moment that a runner will never forget.

In keeping this chart for the 2021 season, here are the categories that we will be keeping track of:

Boys runners under 5 minutes for 1600 Meters per team

Girls runners under 6 minutes for 1600 Meters per team

Boys runners under 10:30 for 3200 Meters per team

Girls runners under 12:45 for 3200 Meters per team

This is a friendly competition. We will not be crowning a champion for this. It should be a challenge for an athlete to get on this list and then watch their times improve as the season progresses.

It will just be interesting to see how many schools will participate in this. It is not a matter of winning or losing but participating. Most importantly, it will give recognition to runners that normally would not be getting that attention.

Guidelines

1– All performances must be done between December 1, 2020 until June 30, 2021. 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 preliminary chart at the beginning of April. There could be an update at the end of April. 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- You can participate in this project if your school is within the United States. This is not an ILLINOIS only endeavor. At the end of the year, we will publish complete lists with the category rankings.

Please e-mail your performances to [email protected] or [email protected]

Please title your e-mail Sub 5 Challenge Performance.

The Sub 5 / Sub 6 Challenge is another effort by ILXCTF.com to promote track & field within the state of Illinois and throughout the country.