BYU's Nachelle Mackie?? What???

Similar to 2nd place Genevieve LaCaze getting a flotrack homepage link saying she "delivered" while the national champion Kipp had about 1:30 interview.

Yes, one has to wonder how a Mackie thread turns into a Jordan Hasay thread? Hahahahaha! It's easy. Do your homework you world-wind worthless wonders out there!!!!!!!! Do you need an answer as to why this has turned into a Jordan Hasay discussion?

The answer is simple.......Jordan has done more for the sport than anyone has accomplished for a young woman since Mary Decker Slaney. There is no other 20-year old young woman distance runner that can compare to Jordan's accomplishment resume. Until an athlete can match what she has achieved at the young age of 20, nobody has any business posting negative comments about Jordan. Those that do post negs are simply jealous, down on life, and ultimate losers in this world. You all should be embarrassed if you are at fault.

Now PLEASE.......all you negative posters! Go out and get a life and do something positive that will make you proud.

Anyone participating in competitive sports at the college level or beyond needs to realize that media attention is fickle. Your rewards for winning an event at NCAAs are crossing the line first, being able to (honestly) say you were the champion, and scoring points for your team. That's what you can count on. How much attention you get is a crap shoot, only partially correlated with performance. Ask any 100m hurdles woman not named Lolo Jones, to pick just one example of many.

But the OP has a good question as to, okay, why so little attention given to Mackie. I don't pretend to know the whole answer - and again, some of this is just chance - but I think part of it is the story element. Hasay is a useful comparison here. A lot of people know Hasay's story, because she got a lot of attention in high school based on making it to Trials. So it's been interesting to watch how she's fared on the college level. She didn't flame out like some HS stars, but neither has she shown real domination. So it's not clear if she's going to keep progressing (ala Rupp) to be a top pro at some point - and if so, at what distance - or end up as someone who can "only" place high at NCAAs. So with each season, many of us are interested to get an update on her story, which we've been following for some years, and see how those questions play out. Fernandez would be a similar example (albeit with different particulars).

We don't know Mackie's story yet, at least most of us don't. That's no fault of hers, no negative reflection on her. But when I saw the results with her name, I didn't have any narrative to connect her with, the way I do with Hasay or Fernandez or others. Over time, if I hear more about her and she keeps running well, then maybe there will be a "Nachelle Mackie" story. Just like I don't recall many people nationally paying too much attention to David Torrence in college, but he started making a name for himself then and followed it up by doing some things as a pro, so now there's kind of a DT story (for good or ill) that many of us follow.

Having written this, and sorry for it being longer than intended, it strikes me that not having much of a "story" out there about you could be a good thing. In other words, I'm not sure Mackie is really missing out on anything by not getting the kind of attention that Hasay (and others) do.

I don't believe people are being negative about Hasay or her achievements. The point is yes she was a phenomenal athlete in high school, running the oly trials was a huge accomplishment at her age. However, she is no longer the best around for her age. And what is infuriating is that the media continually hypes her up for the wins and then we ge tthe monotonous excuses about why she didn't win. Obviously people are very interested in her because of what she achieved at a young age, but that is now in the past, and there is a new crop of talent. Mackie, D Agnostino, Kip, Flood, Goethals, Infeld, Van Dalen.

Good post by It's all in the Game Yo. Media coverage is indeed fickle, even on the level of the college publicity office. The one girl my favorite team likes to hype and put out features on frequently, completely blew up at nationals. That's unfortunate for her of course, and it then makes the school look a little silly that they didn't ever publish much about the second girl in her event who ended up doing far better when it counted (and this wasn't the first time that had happened either.)

Jouralists bear some responsibility to ensure the story of non-blonde, non-white, and possibly not-so-adorable girls gets put out there often enough and in-depth enough for fans to develop an interest akin to what they have for Jordan. The same for the media-overlooked, but highly accomplished male runners. Interviews the likes of the Infeld one won't do it, and it's not as though the girl hasn't done anything prior to the recent NCAA's. I think she was All-American seven times. Furthermore, as also pointed out above, media over-hype doesn't do an athlete any favors. By hyping Jordan more than they should, the media created an awkward situation in which they have to interview her for 6 minutes about why she didn't win and she, in turn, feels the need to say that at least she's always in contention and hey, Chris Derrick didn't win either.

Maybe her latest Olympic Qualifier 'attempt' should prove we no longer need to focus on her. 4.18 ....

If you watched the RACE HASAY DID NIP INFELD FOR 2ND OH WELL. oREGON RETURNS 52 OF THIER 63? POINTS ON THE WOMENS SIDE NEXT YEAR.