Registration Details

Key Dates (Coming Soon)

Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 3:00PM – Registration Opens on Athletic.net.

To help us manage field sizes and ensure a great experience for everyone, meet management may close individual events, or the meet entirely, if entries reach a certain threshold. If you’ve hit a qualifying mark and plan to compete at NBNO, we encourage you to register early to secure your spot. Please note that entries are only confirmed once payment has been made. (While we expect this to primarily affect late entries, and anticipate that anyone registering before the early deadline will be accommodated, we cannot guarantee this.)

7th & 8th graders can only participate in a championship relay if all of the following are true:

1) The middle school athlete is enrolled in the school or school district

2) The middle school athlete currently competes for the varsity team during the spring season

Athletes may register under unattached or under their club/team. If the club/team will send a relay team, including your athlete who qualified in an individual event, then the club/team should register your athlete for their individual event on athletic.net. Once the athlete is registered, their unattached or club/team affiliation cannot be switched. Registering with both will result in a duplicate athlete and any duplicate athletes risk disqualification.

New Balance Outdoor Nationals 2026: Registration Guide

Before You Register: The 3 Requirements

We kindly ask that you wait to begin your registration until you have gathered all the necessary information listed below. If an entry is missing any of the items below, we will not be able to process it and it will be rejected. To help us keep processing times fast for everyone, prior to registration, please ensure you have:

1.  A Qualifying Mark: Your athlete must have already achieved either an Automatic or Provisional qualifying standard following our qualifying rules.(Please do not register with a blank mark or in anticipation of hitting a standard later).
2. A Results Link (URL): You must provide a direct web link to the official results page from the meet you’re trying to use (from sites like Athletic.net, MileSplit, or TFRRS) that proves the qualifying mark.
3. The Qualifying Event: You must identify exactly which event you are using to qualify (for example, noting if you are using an official 1500m time to qualify for the 1-Mile race).

Important: Please do not book travel or hotels until you receive an “Accepted” email. Meet management reserves the right to close registration at any time if an event reaches maximum capacity.

A. Entering an Individual Athlete

Once you have your three requirements ready, your entry must include:

1) Their Best Mark (Seed): Enter the exact qualifying time or distance that follows our qualifying rules. (Note: If Athletic.net already displays the score you want to use, you can leave the “User Seed” box blank).

2) Proof of the Mark/Seed: Paste your URL link to the official results page on the entry.

3) Alternate Qualifiers: If you are using an allowed alternate event to qualify, please explain this in the comments section and include the link to that specific result.

Here are helpful support articles from athletic.net on How to Submit Team Entries and How to Register Individually as a Parent or Athlete

B. Entering a Relay Team

To complete a relay registration, your entry must include:

1) The Team’s Best Time: Enter the relay team’s exact qualifying time. (If Athletic.net already has it, leave it blank).
2) Proof of the Team Time: Provide the URL link to the official race results showing the team’s time.
3) Using Combined Times (Composite): If your team is qualifying based on the combined individual times of the four runners (rather than a past relay race), you must list each runner’s individual time and provide URL links to their official results in the comments section. Alternatively, you can email us a breakdown of your relay composite to run@trialsofmilesracing.com. Be sure to include the 4 athletes you intend to register, which leg they are if applicable, their qualifying mark, any conversions that may apply with the original mark and distance, and your total composite time. Once a composite time is entered, those four athletes must be the athletes competing. If a line-up is switched and the relay no longer meets the composite, it will be rejected.

Here is a helpful support article from athletic.net on How to Submit Team Entries.

Please note: Individual accounts cannot register a relay, a coach or team admin has to register the relay through the team account.

C. Understanding Your Status Emails

The Committee will manually process your entry within 48 hours. You will then receive one of four emails:

• PENDING: Your athlete’s mark is verified! However, they are not officially in the meet yet. You must now pay the entry fee. Once paid, the status will change to Accepted.
• ACCEPTED: The score is verified, the automatic standard is met, and the fee is paid. Your athlete is officially competing! (Note: If your athlete improves their mark later in the season, you can update their entry with the new link so they get a better placement/seeding).
• PROVISIONAL: Your athlete hit the “provisional” standard, but not the automatic standard. You cannot pay yet and you are not accepted yet.
  • You are currently on a waitlist, which is organized by best marks listed on the entry. Please keep your entry up to date with the athlete’s best mark.
  • We will start reviewing this waitlist on May 13, 2026 up until June 3, 2026 on a rolling basis for each event.
  • By June 4, 2026, all remaining provisional entries will receive a determination on whether they will be accepted provisionally or not. (Note: If the event fills up completely before June 4, the waitlist will be closed and we will notify everyone immediately).
• REJECTED: The entry was denied. This happens if the athlete didn’t meet the standards, a qualifying rule was broken, or the application was left incomplete for over 24 hours.

Qualifying Rules

Qualifying marks should be made in official meets using USATF, NFHS, or college rules.

Virtual meet marks are not accepted. Projected marks and time trial marks will be rejected. Dual meet marks are only acceptable if there is FAT (fully automated timing) and complete results available online.

No hand times will be accepted for any event/division at NBNO 2026.

Our seeding committee will verify all marks using various online ranking sites. Whenever possible please include the meet name, date, location and if possible a link to results. Asking meet directors and timers to submit results to Athletic.net would be much appreciated and save all of us a lot of time. The best links for our seeding committee to review will be the direct online result to the athlete’s mark, their MileSplit or Athletic.net profile that lists the relevant mark, or the full results to the meet they qualified at, in that order.

Relay Entry Rules

All relay team members must attain the same high school or be on the same high school team. THERE WILL BE NO ALL-STAR RELAYS AT THE NEW BALANCE NATIONAL OUTDOOR MEET. Teams will be disqualified if they run a relay with athletes from different high schools.

Relay teams should qualify with marks made from either Indoor/Winter 2025-2026 Track or 2026 Outdoor/Spring Track.

Relay composite times will be accepted in all relay events if the individual marks were made after December 2025. In order to use composites for a relay, marks must be run in open races. WE WILL NOT ACCEPT RELAY SPLITS FOR A COMPOSITE MARK. The ONLY exception to this rule is we are allowing teams to use a 1200m relay split to assist with a composite DMR. This 1200m split must be FAT and verifiable in online results. The 1200m leg in the DMR can also be a projection using the Runnerspace Purdy Conversion using a 1000m, 1500m, 1600m, or 1 Mile time. To find the 1200m time, you’ll need to enter 1200m times until you arrive to the matching 1000m, 1500m, 1600m, or 1 Mile time in the Purdy column. Our seeding committee reserves the right to adjust the time.

When calculating composite relay times, no adjustments can be made for athletes having running starts. You simply have to add up the fastest FAT times they have from open races.

Here is a helpful time calculator to help with adding a composite time.

Meet management reserves the right to close registration at any time if entry limits are reached or capacity concerns arise.

Individual Entry Rules

The Seeding Committee will make altitude adjustments for marks over 5000ft in elevation and will only be considered for the Championship 1 mile, 2 mile, and 5000m events. The calculator we use can be found here. If a mark at altitude satisfies these conditions, please note that the mark was at altitude on your entry.

FAT 4×8 Relay splits may be used to enter the 800m. 1600m relay splits from a DMR can be used to enter the mile. No other relay splits will be allowed.

Entries by the same athlete in the same event are not allowed, as in the Championship and Freshman 400m. If an athlete’s mark is superior to the championship standard, that is where they should compete. The seeding committee reserves the right to move athletes up and down accordingly.

DECATHLON/HEPTATHLON ENTRY: The first 16 athletes per gender who achieve the decathlon or heptathlon automatic standard, register, and pay for that event will be accepted. If you have the standard, we recommend registering as soon as possible! Here are helpful calculators to help you figure out your composite score/marks:

Imperial/Metric Conversion Calculator

Combined Events Scoring Calculator

5000M: We will not accept cross-country times for the 5000 meters.

Wheelchair 400m :  The first 9 athletes per gender who achieve the automatic standard, register, and pay for that event will be accepted.

Seeding

Seeding is done with preference given to marks made during the current outdoor season.

Lane preference in relays will be given to teams with actual marks from this season as opposed to composite times or times from previous seasons.

If a composite time is significantly faster than an actual time the seeding committee may use the composite time instead.

The seeding committee reserves the right to use an extraordinary mark in a similar race distance for seeding purposes (i.e. an athlete who is ranked top 3 in the US in the 800 may be considered for the seeded section the 1 mile).

Priority will be given to teams who have run the actual relay vs. using a composite. We will weigh composite marks more heavily in the DMR, Shuttle Hurdles and 1600 SMR, specifically in states where the events are run infrequently or not at all.

Conversions For Seeding

The seeding committee will use the RunnerSpace Purdy Calculator when needed. The committee reserves the right to determine when a conversion is needed.

Any questions about seeding should be sent to meet management.

Transgender Athlete Policy

Eligibility rules for transgender athletes are in line with current USATF and World Athletics rules.

For any USATF competition or events operated using USATF rules [which includes New Balance Nationals Outdoor] as part of a USATF sanction and where age-group awards and/or prize money are at stake, an affected competitor(s) who has a valid reason to question the accuracy of the entry information of a prize- or award winning athlete may protest, either orally or in writing, against the prize- or award-winner with the referee during the respective meet, in accordance with the applicable rules for that event. If the matter cannot be immediately resolved, and all applicable appeals have been exhausted, the affected competitor may file a grievance within USATF, following the procedures described in Regulation 21 of the USATF Bylaws and Operating Regulations.