FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Basketball Elite 24 Winners for Pace and SCSU.
MANSFIELD, Mass. – Southern Connecticut's Zack Penn and Pace's Naya Rivera have earned the Northeast-10 Conference's Elite 24 Award in the sports of men's and women's basketball, respectively, posting the highest grade-point averages among all student-athletes within their sport.
The Elite 24 Award recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA participating at the finals site at each NE10 Championship. No fall or winter championships were played in 2020-21, but the Elite 24 winners have been determined by comparing the GPA of all NE10 student-athletes on a sport-by-sport basis.
Penn, a junior forward, is the first SCSU men's basketball player to earn the prestigious Elite 24 honor after posting a 3.82 GPA as a sport management major. In each of his first five semesters in college, Penn has earned a place on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll. Over his first two seasons with the Owls, he has made 40 game appearances and averaged career-bests in points (4.0) and rebounds (4.6) per game as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season.
Rivera, a senior guard, is the first Pace women's basketball player to win the Elite 24 with a 3.971 GPA in biology and adolescent education. A seven-time honoree on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll, Rivera started all 29 games for the Setters in the 2019-20 season – averaging 5.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists per contest. Rivera is the second student-athlete at Pace to earn an Elite 24 award this academic year (also Grace Henderson in field hockey).
The league office will recognize Elite 24 Award winners for the remaining winter sports this week. For fall winners, which were announced last week, please see below.
ABOUT THE NE10
Beginning its 40th anniversary season, the NE10 is an association of 14 diverse institutions serving student-athletes across 24 NCAA Division II sports. Together we build brilliant futures by embracing the journey of every student-athlete.
Each year, 4,500 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships in 24 sports, making the NE10 the largest DII conference in the country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the NE10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.
