Top male and female track athletes in 2012 to receive Curtis Pugsley Award

PROVO, Utah – The BYU track and field program will host a reception for the recipients of the Curtis Pugsley Track and Field Athlete of the Year award, Miles Batty and Nachelle Mackie, on Dec. 4 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

As a junior, Batty won the national championship in the mile, the distance medley relay team and was named the National Men's Track Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. In 2012, even though Batty did not reclaim his championship titles, he set a national record, received several All-America honors and garnered multiple awards in the athletic and academic fields.

During the 2012 indoor season, Batty broke the all-time NCAA indoor mile record (3:54.54), was named the Mountain Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, earned All-America honors in the mile and the distance medley relay, won the MPSF Indoor Championship in the 800m and the distance medley relay, and was named to the Division I All-Academic Team. During the outdoor season, Batty placed second in the 1,500 meters at nationals, ran the second-fastest 2012 collegiate 1,500m time, was named a Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and was awarded the NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship, the most prestigious academic award given by the NCAA. Before Batty, BYU had never had a finalist for the award, which is given to only one athlete out of all NCAA sports each year.

Mackie, after redshirting in 2011, returned in 2012 and had one of the greatest single seasons in BYU history. To name a few of her accomplishments, Mackie won the indoor and outdoor 800m national championships, won the MPSF 800m indoor championship, was named the Mountain Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, set and broke the BYU indoor 800m all-time record, set the second fastest time for the BYU outdoor 800m, set and maintained the fastest recorded NCAA outdoor 800m time in 2012 and received first-team All-America honors in the indoor 800m, the distance medley relay and the outdoor 800m.

In addition to earning MPSF All-Academic honors, Mackie was named to the 2012 Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 First Team and the Capital One Academic All-America team.

Curtis Pugsley is a BYU Track & Field alumnus (2000-2004), a multiple All-American and conference champion in the decathlon.  A generous donor has funded the award in Curtis’ name and endowed it for a yearly reception and presentation of the award to the top male and female track athlete of the year. 

The yearly recipient is determined by a scoring system that combines points scored at indoor and outdoor conference championships, points awarded for All-America and national champion status, school records and spots on the top-10 leader board.  

The event will begin at 7 p.m. MST.