Olathe ? There’s no question around the Sunflower League that Free State High’s boys track team is in a three-horse race to claim this year’s league title.

Ask coach Steve Heffernan, and it all comes down to one deciding factor — rain.

Both Free State and Lawrence High travel today to Olathe for the 3 p.m. meet, but the forecast doesn’t look promising. Should the meet be pushed back a day, both teams will lose a number of players due to graduation obligations.

“If we run it (today), our chances will be pretty good,” Heffernan said. “On the guys side (our strength) is the track. We’re definitely a track-oriented team. Sprints and the distance right now are really good areas.”

Especially distances.

Danny Schneider, Spencer Martin and Alex Rock all enter this weekend in the state’s top 10 in both the 800 and the mile.

On the girls’ side, the Firebirds will benefit from an injection of youth.

Freshman Courtney Barber, who just joined the team after the city junior high championships, can do a bit of everything. She took the city titles in the 200 and the high jump while placing second in the 400.

Though, just like the rest of the league on the girls’ side, it’s a competition to see who will be bridesmaid to Leavenworth’s bride.

“We have really nice balance, and if we put together a good meet, we could be as high as second,” Heffernan said.

For LHS, the athlete to watch is Scott Penny, who could be bringing home plenty of medals.

“Scott Penny has a legitimate chance to win both the shot and disc,” LHS coach Scott Stidham said. “He’s probably our lone guy with a legitimate shot at winning anything.”

For the LHS girls, they will head into the competition without junior standout Amy Magnuson. She will be out of town for her brother’s college graduation, but Stidham might have held her out of competition regardless, as she’s trying to get healthy before next week’s regionals.

Stidham also realizes the probability of the competition being moved to 10 a.m. Saturday, but he decided to cross that bridge when he comes to it.

“I’m sure we’ll have a few kids that will have other obligations, but I don’t want them to tell me about it now,” he said. “Wait until it happens. Don’t worry about things you can’t control.”