BULLDOG BITS

Baseball

Mississippi State baseball senior Jake Mangum has been honored with a preseason appointment to the Golden Spikes Award Watchlist, given to the top amateur baseball player in the country by USA Baseball in partnership with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation.

Since 2008, only Mangum and Florida's Tucker Preston have been selected to the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watchlist three times. On the 2019 watchlist, Mangum headlines the group of five student-athletes that have been picked to the preseason watch list previously, as he is joined by Zack Hess (LSU), Shea Langeliers (Baylor), Drew Mendoza (Florida State) and Matt Wallner (Southern Miss), who have each been recognized for the second-straight year.

Mangum has been chosen to four preseason All-america teams and was given first-team All-southeastern Conference on Thursday by the conference coaches. The Pearl native owns preseason All-america recognition from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (first team), D1baseball (second team), the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (first team) and Perfect Game (third team). He was also tabbed as D1baseball's top returning senior.

In his career, Mangum owns a hit in 146 of 176 games started (82.9 percent) and has reached base in 159 of 176 games started (90.3 percent). The active career leader in hits among NCAA baseball student-athletes, Mangum enters the season with 275 career hits. With 154 career runs scored, Mangum sits No. 4 among returning studentathletes for the 2019 season, while his .356 batting average is No. 4 among returners in Division I with at least 400 at bats in their career.

The preseason watch list features 55 of the nation's top amateur players, from high school and college baseball. The Golden Spikes Award Advisory Board will maintain a rolling list of players, allowing athletes to play themselves into consideration for the award throughout the season.

Football/volleyball

Two Mississippi State student-athletes have joined 26 of their Southeastern Conference counterparts in a joint meeting of the SEC Student-athlete Leadership Councils and the Student-athlete Advisory Committee in Birmingham at the conference office.

The Bulldogs attending the conference are volleyball's Kanani Price and football's Kody Schexnayder.

The purpose of the SEC SAAC is to provide studentathletes with additional opportunities to engage with campus leaders and conference office staff. Additional councils with similar purposes were introduced by the Conference in 2016 for football and men's and women's basketball. Each council convenes annually, and a joint meeting is held during the summer. The SEC Football Leadership Council conducted its two-day meeting last weekend, and the basketball councils meet during the fall.

Price is a sophomore from Fairmount, Indiana, and played in 37 sets this past season with the volleyball team. The defensive specialist has 129 career digs. She was also selected to the 2017 SEC Community Service Team. She is majoring in animal and dairy science focusing on science and vet sciences where she achieved a spot on the 2018 Fall SEC Honor Roll.

A native of River Ridge, Louisiana, Schexnayder has played in 18 career games and averaged 36.4 yards per punt while serving as the Bulldogs' holder. He is majoring in human development and family sciences where he also landed a spot on the 2018 Fall SEC Honor Roll.

Agenda items for the SEC SAAC meeting include a presentation on leadership by Growing Leaders, Inc., a conversation with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, a review of NCAA and SEC legislative items with SEC Assistant Commissioner Matt Boyer, and an open discussion on various topics facilitated by Misty Brown, SEC Director of Studentathlete Engagement. The group will also elect officers at the end of its meeting.

Track and Field

CLEMSON, S.C./NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Asia Poe has a knack for the long jump at Vanderbilt.

The freshman, who entered the weekend as the top-ranked rookie in the country in the event, won the long jump for the second time in as many outings at Vanderbilt's Multipurpose Facility. Poe jumped 6.16 meters (20-2.5) to finish as the top collegian at the Music City Challenge on Friday. Alexis Farley finished seventh with a jump of 5.89 meter (19-4.0).

“I thought we had a decent start to the weekend,” MSU interim head coach Chris Woods said. “We continue to be impressed by the freshman year that Asia has put together. She's really competing at a high level right now. For her to be one of the top long jumpers in the nation this early in career speaks volumes of the work she has put into her craft.”

In the men's 60-meter hurdles at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, Jesse Henderson set a personal best, running 8.11 in the semifinals. In the women's 60 meters, Faith Gilbert continued to impress, running a personal-best 7.44 in the semifinals which moved her into a tie for second all-time at MSU in the event.

All three of State's men's high jumpers earned top-5 finishes with clearances of 2.07 meters (6-9.5), with Milton Harrell and Reggie Miller tying for third while Devantre Young placed fifth.

Mckenzie Ethridge posted a personal-best time in the women's 400 meters for the second week in a row, running 57.82 at Clemson.

“I'm very impressed with how Jesse and Faith performed today,” Woods said. “They still have a lot of potential and, if they continue to work hard, the sky is the limit for those two. Although our future looks bright with our freshmen performing the way that they are, I want our upperclassmen to step it up in a major way tomorrow in preparation for the conference meet.”

The Bulldogs will finish up competition in Clemson and Nashville today. The women's 800 meters is first on the docket for MSU in Clemson at 10:30 a.m. At the Music City Challenge, the unseeded sections of the women's 3000 meters are set to open up the day's events at 10 a.m.

Women's Tennis

Mississippi State women's tennis continues its sevenmatch homestand with another doubleheader today against Alabama State (1-2) at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and UAB (23) on Sunday at noon at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.

The Bulldogs (4-2) look to improve on a 32-match winning streak in non-conference contests, with three opportunities at home this weekend. Under 10th-year head coach Daryl Greenan, MSU is 7634 (.691) in non-conference matches. Admission to all MSU home matches is free.