ABQ indoor women's 5000: Pick Spence (Shippensburg)

The women's 5,000 is only slightly missing the presence of Seattle Pacific studstress Jessica Pixler, who opted for the mile and DMR. But the showdown between two of the country's -- regardless of size -- female distance runners should be great.

Tanya Zeferjahn (Queens) is back on track (literally), after some recent quiet seasons. Neely Spence (Shippensburg), the outdoors 5k champ, continues to run fast after a sorta sub-par cross country season finish. Both ripped 16:13 efforts this indoor season at different meets.

Make no mistake, this will be a two-woman race: The next fastest qualifier is more than a half-minute behind. The altitude and championship atmosphere will narrow that gap, but all eyes should be on Spence and Zeferjahn.

And Spence should win. She's been a little more consistent and appears to have a bit more speed.

On the other hand, Zeferjahn is concentrating only on the 5,000, while Spence will run the distance medley relay Friday night.

Best of the rest? By this time you likely have picked up on my belief that altitude will have an impact on the distance races -- ever more so in this event. That gives Laura Kleppin (Western State) and Marie Patton (Colorado Mines) the edge for third.