The Glenn Cunningham Mile was not run in this year’s Kansas Relays. Rather than boycott the meet entirely to protest that sad decision, it seemed a better idea to find the next-best thing to watch, a 1,600-meter race between a pair of closely matched rivals.

Jim Ryun was in attendance on a sunny Saturday at the sparsely attended Kansas Relays. Neither Marty Liquori nor Kip Keino was anywhere in sight, but four decades later, a pair of distance runners with the same sort of work ethic and competitive spirit battled each other one more time in a rivalry that should captivate local track enthusiasts all the way into next spring.

Kelly Renfro, a junior at Lawrence High, is the more slender, smoother runner. Kyra Kilwein, a sophomore at Free State, is the physically stronger athlete. Mentally, neither one shows signs of bending, much less breaking.

“Kyra is a very, very hard worker, even when we want her to go easy,” Free State track and field coach Steve Heffernan said. “If you tell her to do an eight-mile run, she might do it twice.”

Kilwein learned there is such a thing as too much work.

“I over-trained in the fall and I’m just now recovering,” she said. “I learned a very good lesson from that.”

Renfro brought a personal best time of 5:25.17 into the meet, or, .17 seconds better than Kilwein’s best. The runners are that close in ability and were equally exhausted by the time the 1,600 meters arrived. Each had already run a total of three races in two days. Nevermind that their duel in the sun was not for first place. One girl’s jersey said Lawrence, the other’s Free State.

Renfro, as is her custom, got out quickly. Her first lap, run in 76 seconds, was her fastest. Her next fastest lap was her last. She covered the final 400 meters in 79 seconds. Kilwein used her eyes to key off of Renfro and never let her get too far in front of her. Renfro used her ears.

“I could hear them yelling for her, so I knew she was pretty close behind,” Renfro said. “I knew she was running up on me and I like that. It makes me do better. Don’t want to get beat by a Free Stater. That would not work.”

Actually, Renfro said she has competed against Kilwein “more than 10 times, and it’s been pretty even.”

This time, Renfro won the duel, finishing fifth among 18 runners in the heat with a time of 5:31.33. Kilwein was sixth, timed in 5:32.58. Immediately after the race, still almost too out of breath to talk, the girls congratulated each other on races well run and shared a short chat.

“It’s a lot of fun competing against each other,” Kilwein said. “She is such a competitor. It was especially fun doing it in the Kansas Relays. It’s just like the states, only better.”

The Kansas Relays still thrill high school competitors and at least one former track icon seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Perfect day for a track meet, isn’t it?” an upbeat Ryun said.

The public took a pass on this year’s meet. There could not have been more than 5,000 spectators, including Kansas University basketball star Russell Robinson, in the stadium Saturday. Many of those who paid attention to the girls 1,600-meter run will want to keep an eye on them again next month in the Sunflower League meet. They make each other better.