At last check, Kansas Relays meet director tireless Tim “Dream” Weaver had lined up approximately six billion Olympians and advised spectators to bring roughly two million rolls of film to capture shots of the stars.

That’s nice.

The mile is still the best event to watch, and Saturday’s Glenn Cunningham Mile Run, scheduled for 3:50 p.m. during Gold Zone II, won’t need Olympians to captivate the crowd. It will have plenty of the next best thing: young men with the word “Kansas” splashed across their chests running four times around the track.

Cunningham, Wes Santee, Jim Ryun, Billy Mills. Their modern-day equivalents won’t be running, but all these decades later, this race will feature men who dream of breaking the four-minute barrier.

Pacing, strategy, kicks, a four-minute test of wills. If you’ve never heard of any of this year’s contestants, well, does that make them different from many of the Olympians?

Chris Mulvaney, 2004 NCAA 1,500-meter outdoor champ while a senior at Arkansas, KU seniors Cameron Schwehr and Joshy Madathil, and multi-event junior-college national champion Daniel Mania all have shots at winning.

Too many names? To simplify matters, focus on two runners. Both are KU sophomores. Both are on the rise. And both are dropping down from their main event, the 5,000 meters.

Colby Wissel’s best mile time, 4:08, came indoors, as did Paul Hefferon’s 4:11. Wissel, from Elm Creek, Neb., has a best of 14:15 in the 5,000, two seconds slower than Blue Valley West grad Hefferon.

KU sophomore 800-meter man Brandon Hodges will be counted on to set a fast pace.

“There’s just something about that distance,” Hefferon said of the mile. “It’s always been a big event that people pay attention to. When people find out that I run, they never ask me what my 5K time is. They always ask, ‘How fast can you run a mile?’ It’s fun to watch, and when you know people are enjoying watching you, it’s easy to have fun out there running.”

Ryun, in part, is to thank for that. His highlights are enjoyed by generations.

“There’s still a few videos of his races floating around,” Wissel said. “It’s just inspiring. Every runner’s dream is to be in a world-class field, blowing everyone away the final 100 meters, looking like a stallion out there.”

Ryun and Santee will be in attendance, feeling the rhythm of the race that is the most strategic of all track and field events, a blend of speed and endurance. Where others in the race have more speed than Wissel and Hefferon, the two KU sophomores have strong endurance.

“You’ve got to maintain contact throughout, don’t ever want to let him slip away,” Wissel said of the strategy for a 5,000-meter man going against a miler in his event.

Hefferon answered the same question: “You try to take some of that speed out of him, grind it out of him if you get in front of him late in the race. If you’re feeling good and he’s hurting a little, you’ve got to push down on the gas, give yourself a little cushion before he can kick.”

Imagine this scenario: The milers get out to too fast a pace, are caught and passed early in the fourth lap by the KU sophomores. Hefferon and Wissel kick down the stretch, stride for stride, with all the spectators on their feet, cheering them home.