The Kansas Relays decathlon, which had been on hiatus the past three years, is back just in time for Josh Kirk’s senior season.

“I’m very excited to be able to compete at home,” said Kirk, a former Olathe South standout who takes the best mark of 10 competitors into today’s event, set for 10 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m., at Memorial Stadium.

“At the end of last year, coach (Stanley Redwine) said they’d have one here this year. I marked it on my calendar,” added Kirk, who has a career-best mark of 7,251 points attained at last year’s Big 12 Outdoor meet, in which he placed fifth.

The decathlon and heptathlon had been taken off the agenda the past few seasons with the meet dedicated more to the professional athletes in the Gold Zone. There is a renewed emphasis on the collegiate portion of the Relays, hence the return of the decathlon/heptathlon.

“It’d be nice to get off to a good start and get everybody in a winning mentality to start the Relays,” said Kirk, who will compete in the 100, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 today, then conclude Thursday with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and grueling 1,500.

“Mentally, it’s almost as challenging as physically,” said Kirk, who was born in Lawrence, but lived in Olathe most of his life. “When you train all year and train three to four events a day it’s really tough, (but) in competition it is actually fun.”

Wichita State’s Chris Dickman has the second best qualifying mark at 6,661 points, followed by NW Missouri’s Courtland Ingram (6,507), Tulsa’s Cory Fixley and Thomas Stoltz (6,500), Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Justin Bohler (6,428), Wichita State’s Justin Taylor (6,413), KU’s Jacob Breth (6,328) and Neosho County CC’s Bryan Schiller (5,025).

Chelsea Helm, a freshman from Tulsa, will be the only Jayhawk in the heptathlon. Jennifer McCoy, who will compete unattached, leads all competitors with 5,291 points, followed by UT-San Antonio’s Ashley Allen (5,226), Nebraska’s Casie Witte (5,138), Lincoln College’s Kerry-ann Robinson (5,115), Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Jenni Saarinen (4,993), Kansas State’s Lindsay Grigoriev (4,972), Nebraska’s Erin Hannon (4,800), K-State’s Marianne Schlachter (4,638), K-State’s Stephanie Hejde (4,600), Wichita State’s Emily Green (4,550), South Dakota State’s Kim Markham (4,532) and Helm (4,500).