This is Cate Westenhover, Flo Intern. I’m helping out with editorial content this summer. I run track and cross country for Baylor.

The nature of elite racing makes picking winners pretty tough, especially at a championship meet like this, but educated guesses and speculation build anticipation and make it more fun to watch the races unfold.

There's a lot at stake at the USA champs. The meet doubles as a qualifier for August’s IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. To make the USA team that competes at Worlds, athletes have to place top three at USAs and meet certain time standards over the course of the season (A/B standards listed).

800m (1:59.80/2:01.30)
Alysia Johnson leads the field by almost a second with her 1:57 seed (recorded last summer in Monaco). She hasn’t raced much this season but she was first among Americans in this event at the Pre Classic. But with six women under 2:00 entry times, Johnson may not run away with the title. Seasoned pros Maggie Vessey and Alice Schmidt will contend too. Also look out for Phoebe Wright, who holds the second-best time coming in, running her first season as a pro after her career at Tennessee. 

Pick: Alysia Johnson

1500m (4:05.90/4:08.90)
Christin Wurth-Thomas is tops here, the only sub-4 entrant. Anna Pierce didn’t look good at the adidas Grand Prix last week (4:11), but her 2:00 800 at Pre Classic shows she’s in good shape. It’ll be fun to see Jordan Hasay up against the pros once again after her disappointing eighth place at NCAAs.

Pick: Christin Wurth-Thomas

5000m (15:14.00/15:25.00)
It would be exciting to see all-time US #1 and #2 Molly Huddle and Shalane Flanagan duke it out here, but if Flanagan doesn’t show (she’s racing the 10k first) then Huddle could easily take this race. Lauren Fleshman was injured this spring, but she won this race last year after a similar season that started late because of injury. Amy Begley has the third seed with a sweet sub-15 time she ran last year.  Also making an appearance here are first-year pro Angela Bizzarri, Jenny Simpson and Shannown Rowbury (slightly out of their elements) and collegiates Jordan Hasay and Neely Spence. Oh, and Kara Goucher, who's got a 15:11 under her belt from earlier this month.

Pick: Shalane Flanagan if she runs, otherwise Molly Huddle

10000m (31:45.00/32:00.00)
Shalane Flanagan tops the field of declared entrants with a margin of one minute, thanks to a 30:39 seed time. Making it interesting, Kara Goucher is entered here. This is her first 10k of the season. She already has a spot on the US team at worlds in the marathon, but she says the track is her first priority. Desiree Davila, who wowed us earlier this year with the runner-up spot at Boston Marathon, could match the leaders here too.

Pick: Shalane Flanagan

3k Steeple (9:43.00/9:50.00)
With no Jenny Simpson and no Anna Pierce (both members of the last world team), this event’s winner is even more uncertain. Look for NCAA studs Emma Coburn (Colorado) and Stephanie Garcia (Virginia) here. They were 1-2 at the NCAA champs and come in seeded fifth and sixth (seed times 9:40 and 9:47). Coburn already beat several members of this field (including Sara Hall and Nicole Bush) at the Payton Jordan meet in May. The experienced Lisa Aguilera has the leading seed time (9:24), but that was from Europe last summer. Don’t forget second-ranked Bridget Franek either (9:32), who’s competing in her first pro season after winning an NCAA championship last year. 

Pick: Bridget Franek

Flotrack fans, let me know what you think. Personally, I love seeing college women run fast and proving their talent against much more experienced runners. Then again, you want the ones who’ve been at it for so long to have their payout of success… Who do you want to win these races?