STARKVILLE — Mississippi State senior Nuno Borges was named Monday the 2019 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s Tennis Player of the Year.
The five-time All-American (three singles honors, two doubles) and three-time Southeastern Conference Player of the Year joins Thomas Dupre as the only Bulldogs to earn the honor. Dupre received the honor in 1997 after finishing ranked No. 1 in singles.
Last week, Borges became the third Bulldog to finish a season ranked No. 1 nationally in singles, joining Dupre (1997) and Marco Baron (2001). The Maia, Porto, Portugal, native is the only MSU player to earn the top billing in singles and doubles to end a season. He did so in doubles with Strahinja Rakic in 2018. He was also the only player in collegiate tennis to finish in the top 10 in singles and doubles this season.
Borges reached the NCAA Singles title match May 25 in Orlando, Florida, after having become the first Bulldog to advance to the NCAA semifinals in 2017 and 2018. He finished his final season with a 37-3 singles mark, which included a program-best 31-match winning streak. Twenty-six of those wins were in straight sets.
In his four-year career at MSU, Borges earned 121 singles wins and 68 more in doubles for 189 overall, which is first all-time in program history. He also ranks first in total dual match wins (135) and dual match singles victories (81). Borges is MSU’s all-time leader in overall winning percentage (74.4%, 189-65), singles winning percentage (84.0%, 121-23), overall dual match winning percentage (75.8%, 135-43), and singles dual match winning percentage (87.1%, 81-12).
The 2019 ITA National Senior Player of the Year finished his tenure ranked third nationally in doubles with Rakic. Borges and Rakic reached the NCAA Doubles quarterfinals and earned All-America status for the second year in a row. The tandem was ranked as high as No. 1 in their time as a team, finishing the 2018 campaign at the top spot. Borges and Rakic had a 23-11 ledger in 2018-19, including a 16-7 mark in dual matches. In three years together, the tandem amassed the most doubles wins (57) in program history.
Off the court, Borges received the 2018 ITA National Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership & Sportsmanship Award and was named the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in men’s tennis in 2018 and 2019.
Track and field team’s Peters earns spot on final watch list for Bowerman
MSU standout Anderson Peters has been named to the final watch list for The Bowerman, which is collegiate track and field’s highest honor.
The Bowerman was created in 2009 and is given annually to the top male and female athlete in track and field by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Peters, the South Region co-Field Athlete of the Year leads the NCAA in the javelin this year and will be the top seed at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which will begin Wednesday in Austin, Texas. The sophomore won his second SEC Championship this season while breaking the conference meet record in his event for the second consecutive year.
The St. Andrews, Grenada, native ranks third in NCAA history and holds 10 of the top 25 throws all-time. He is No. 7 in the world in the javelin this year with a mark of 86.07 meters (282 feet, 4 inches). Excluding fouls, each of his attempts is among the top-25 throws of the year, including the top 12 marks.
Peters holds facility record at all but one venue he threw at this year (Texas). He will attempt to claim back-to-back national titles on Wednesday and would be just the third MSU athlete to do so.
Competing at Mike A. Myers Stadium, Peters will get a chance to cross the Longhorns’ facility record off his list while taking a shot at the all-time collegiate leader Patrik Boden (Texas – 1990). The last time he threw off that runway, he launched his NCAA-leading throw and every attempt traveled more than 80.00m (262-5).
Ten semifinalists for the award will be announced following the Championships on Thursday, June 13. Peters was State’s first semifinalist in school history a year ago. From that list, three finalists will be selected June 20.
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