State Softball Sends League-High to Academic All-SEC Honors
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State softball team sent a league-high nine student-athletes to the 70-member Southeastern Conference Softball Academic Honor Roll released Wednesday afternoon by the league office in Birmingham, Ala.
Brooke Best, Blaire Brown, Kate Jaspers, Jennifer Jessup, Iyhia McMichael, Amy Mosley, Lindsay Nelson, Krystal Tillman and Jennifer Waterman were all recognized on the academic list for their achievements in the classroom during the 2001-02 academic year. It was the third conference academic laurel for Best and Jessup and the first such honor for the remaining seven.
Mississippi State topped the conference for the third time since 1997 with the number of honorees, accomplishing the feat in both 1999 with 11 and 2001 with an SEC record 14 honorees. This year's total brought MSU's sum since 1997 to an SEC-leading 57, three better than Kentucky who has had 54 of its athletes honored with the award since the inaugural season of softball in the SEC.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must: 1) have a 3.0 grade point average for either the past year or for their career; 2) be a sophomore or higher in academic classification; and 3) have 24 semester hours countable toward a degree. The 2002 SEC Softball Academic Honor Roll is based on grades from the 2001-02 academic calandar.
The Bulldogs have been no stranger to academic recognition this season. On Oct. 23, 2002, State had five of its players -- Brown, Jaspers, Mosley, Nelson and Tillman -- named academic all-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches' Association and, on Dec. 19, it was announced that the softball team turned in an overall 3.41 GPA during the fall semester -- a number that topped the list of MSU women's sports.
2003 SEC SOFTBALL ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL
(MSU Players Only)
Brooke Best (Sr., Teaching & Coaching)
Blaire Brown (Jr., Psychology)
* Kate Jaspers (Jr., Psychology)
Jennifer Jessup (Jr., Teaching & Coaching)
Iyhia McMichael (Jr., Gen. Business Admin.)
Amy Mosley (Jr., Fitness Management)
Lindsay Nelson (Jr., Sociology)
Krystal Tillman (Jr., Gen. Business Admin.)
Jennifer Waterman (Jr., Gen. Business Admin.)
* -- 4.0 Overall GPA