In the most anticipated race at this year's Kansas Relays, two of the world's top professional sprinters dueled to the tape in the 100-meter dash with a field of up-and-coming world-class challengers.

It was the moment that about 24,000 fans -- the biggest Kansas Relays crowd by far in 33 years -- came to see, and no one was disappointed, even as area native and former world champion Maurice Green finished .05 seconds behind winner John Capel.

However, hopes for the future of this once-endangered but recently reborn meet may have been represented best a short while after Greene's run -- and moments before a relay race featuring another household track name, Marion Jones -- by two unheralded collegiate runners.

"About 45 minutes (after Greene's race), in the 'B' section of the 1,500-meter run, a young man from Kansas and a young man from Kansas State had just as close a finish, and the crowd went just about equally crazy," said Tim Weaver, Kansas Relays director, recalling the event a few days later.

"That really struck a chord with me. I know a lot of Maurice and Marion fans showed up that day, but I think they left as track and field fans. They're thinking, 'I haven't been to a track and field meet in a long time, and sure, it was fun to watch Maurice Green run, but those kids from Kansas and Kansas State put on quite a show, too.'

"I think we can help reintroduce some folks to the fun of collegiate track and field," Weaver said. "(But) I think, at least in my market, it's the Olympians and the household names that are the hook we use to bring those folks back to the table."

Recently, the meet has featured a high-quality high-school field, and now the Relays seem to be on the cusp of regularly drawing an attractive field of pros. However, like a handful of other university-hosted relay "carnivals" -- especially its sister meets, the Texas Relays and the Drake Relays, as well as the oldest such event, the Penn Relays -- Kansas has been known for hosting some of the greatest collegiate competition in American track and field history.

That, Weaver concedes, is no longer true -- and it remains questionable whether it ever will be again.

"By no means are we turning our back on collegiate competition," he said. "We're making the best of what we have. For right now, based on the success in 2005, the lead horse is the featured athletes -- the Olympians, the household names -- that fans in Kansas know."

Choosing another path

After glory years that featured local heroes such as milers Wes Santee and Jim Ryun and discus specialist Al Oerter, the Kansas event fell on hard times during the early 1990s, due largely to the loss of Division I entrants who moved to other meets that either offered stronger competition or were closer to home. Attendance dwindled, the meet consistently lost money, and finally, in 1998, it was "postponed" during a two-year renovation of its home facility, the University of Kansas' Memorial Stadium.

"If you asked folks in this community, I think most would have agreed that the meet was dead," Weaver said.

Thanks to efforts of Jayhawk track and field alumni who pushed for the Relays' reinstatement, the event survived its hiatus, and the university committed itself to rebuilding the event, hiring former University of Tulsa track athlete Weaver as its first full-time director four years ago and then supporting the event with significant administrative and financial resources.

But Weaver says that to survive, the Kansas Relays now will have to be different from the other historic university-hosted relays -- at least for the foreseeable future.

"The Kansas Relays -- like Texas and Drake and Penn and Mt. Sac (hosted by Mount San Antonio College, a community college in California) -- will still be this three-day extravaganza of track and field. That's really important to our mission, and I think we owe it to the sport.

"But that Saturday afternoon block" -- featuring well-known names like Greene and Jones -- "is what we're going to promote to the public."

The Penn Relays are thriving with a similar format, regularly enjoying large crowds and a Saturday-afternoon network television audience. Meanwhile, the Texas Relays -- an event that once joined with Kansas and Drake to form a "triple crown" of collegiate track meets -- maintains prominence, while the steady-as-she goes Drake Relays just recorded its 40th straight sellout of 18,000 fans.

All of those meets have been and remain important in collegiate track and field, because they typically draw some of the biggest crowds in a sport that often struggles for attention from sports fans.

But one thing those meets have in common -- and that Kansas currently lacks -- is a stable of prominent collegiate entrants. Nationally ranked teams regularly travel to Austin, Des Moines and Philadelphia, just as they have for years, and show no signs of pulling out anytime soon.

"Just since the time I competed, I've noticed a consistency in many of our (regular entrants) Ñ Baylor, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi and Illinois -- which also have competed at a very high level in the NCAA, indoor and outdoor meets," said former world-class high-jumper Brian Brown, a Drake Relays competitor during the mid-1990s who recently became director of that event.

"Colleges that support the Drake Relays traditionally have come here for years, and a relationship has been established," Brown said. "One of the things I think the colleges know from year to year is that the Relays will go on. We try our best to let the colleges and the coaches know how much we really appreciate their support."

However, Drake can express that appreciation in at least one way that Weaver says Kansas can't match -- by helping defray entrants' travel costs. Specifically, Brown says, Drake provides significant assistance with housing.

"That's part of the relationship, too," said Brown, who succeeded five-year director Mark Kostek in February. "They know what to expect. It may fluctuate year to year, depending on Drake's budget and the Relays' budget, but there is some sponsorship there, and it's important, because it can make the difference in the travel of some of the teams."

Weaver says, "The landscape has changed quite a bit in the last 15 years, with meets providing significant financial support for some of the major college teams. Hotel and per diem costs for a three-day meet plus a travel day are significant -- even just to travel a short distance. (Coaches) are turning to meet directors looking for assistance to continue their attendance, and up to this point, we've not been able to do it."

In Division I, where programs must pay their own way to compete in NCAA regionals, it is difficult for schools to also pay to add the Kansas Relays to their schedules, he added.

Still seeking colleges

Given the circumstances, the obvious question is, will the Kansas Relays eventually become a university-hosted meet that doesn't host collegiate competition? Weaver says he is working hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

"To have the kind of Kansas Relays we want, we want to improve all of the divisions, and certainly the college division is the one we're putting the most focus on -- it's something that fans still identify with our meet," he said.

The meet already attracts entrants from Divisions II and III -- this year including defending Division II women's champion Lincoln University (Missouri), as well as outstanding individuals such as Wartburg College distance runner Missy Buttry -- and also draws high-quality National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics members and junior college teams.

It also draws an assortment of nearby Division I teams, though among the noticeable absences are all but a couple of Big 12 Conference entries.

"That competition, I think, people will appreciate regardless of the logo on the uniform," Weaver said. "But, before they come in the stadium, people are still more attracted to names they know and recognize. They like to see Division I schools from a major conference that they associate with big-time athletics.

"It will be a major focus this year to talk with coaches, letting them know what we have, and talking with ADs to let them know how coming to Kansas can work in a competition sense, a financial sense and also a recruiting sense, since our prep meet is one of the strongest in the middle part of the country."

What does Kansas have?

"One, the opportunity to see new faces and new teams," Weaver said. "I tell college coaches, you have the conference meet and the regional meet and the national meet to see how you stack up against NCAA competition. The Kansas Relays is a chance to hone your athletes for that competition by having them stand up against an open athlete, an NAIA athlete, a juco athlete and a Division II or III athlete. That's something that coaches are starting to warm up to -- unsegregated competition. We'll put the fastest athletes in the fastest heat, and everyone's got an equal shot. That's something that I think appeals to them."

For example, the 800-meter relay race that Marion Jones competed in this year at Kansas also included three senior college teams -- including a Southwest Missouri State University squad that won the event when two of Jones' teammates failed to pass the baton within the exchange zone.

With crowds apparently returning to the Kansas Relays, the event also increasingly will be able to offer something that Drake consistently has been able to deliver to its entrants.

"For colleges, it is just an unbelievable atmosphere," Drake's Brown said about the event he directs, where he still holds the high jump record. "They want to come, and they're the ones the fans are looking to see, because they often are our future Olympians. As long as they are consistently coming in -- the Big 12s, the Big 10s, the NAIAs, the colleges that compete at a very high level -- our fans will continue to expect great competition."

Appreciative fans pump up competitors, he said, creating an electric atmosphere for athletes who are preparing for upcoming conference meets and NCAA championships.

"The Drake Relays give any athlete who hasn't hit a regional mark the perfect setting -- instead of waiting for the conference setting -- to hit that mark. The Drake Relays is the kind of competition that, if you can't get up for and get things going to hit that mark, it's going to be difficult in any other setting."

It all adds up to an atmosphere that the college teams want to be part of -- again and again.

"I spent quite a bit of time on the field this year talking with a lot of the coaches of our traditional big schools, and they're saying we're looking forward to next year, we want to be here," Brown said. "I think that, year to year, that's the feeling they leave with."

Weaver hopes to create -- once again -- that type of atmosphere at Kansas, but he says the first priority is to draw fans into the stadium. If that means shifting the focus to "name" athletes, and taking other steps to make the Relays more attractive to crowds, then he will do it in the belief that "a high tide raises all boats."

This year, the Kansas meet made a significant adjustment in its schedule, grouping events featuring the best-known names into a Saturday-afternoon session promoted as the Gold Zone.

"The Gold Zone was a big winner this year," he said, crediting it with drawing the biggest crowd to the Relays since 32,000 gathered in 1972 to watch a field featuring Ryun, University of Michigan sprinter Herb Washington and Olympic shot put champion Randy Matson.

"As a track geek, I'd love to just sit and watch 10 hours of track, but we just admitted there probably aren't two dozen people with my sickness within an hour's drive of Memorial Stadium. So, instead of telling people, this is what you should want from a track meet, we've listened to them and said, okay, we're going to deliver what you want in an entertainment event. This three-hour block is here to stay."

But other decisions still to be made could shape the look of the Kansas Relays for years to come -- and ultimately determine whether it will again become one of the pre-eminent collegiate meets in America.

"Those are the very questions we're asking right now -- how do we best use our resources to meet our goals.

"We have to look at the big picture -- what's the best way to improve all aspects of the meet? If we spend a dollar, and the dollar doesn't just increase attendance, but improve the high-school and college sections, improve recruiting opportunities, create better opportunities for KU athletes to compete and get that regional mark -- those are the questions we're asking, and I don't know how quickly we'll come up with the answers."

For now, however, the Kansas Relays seem to have settled on a direction for at least the immediate future.

"Interest in collegiate teams will be driven by a number of things, but primarily, it'll be those household names getting fans in the stands, and exposing them to what collegiate teams have to offer in track and field," Weaver said.