NORFOLK, Va. – Six Norfolk State student-athletes were honored by the Virginia Sports Information Directors on Thursday when they were named to the VaSID Academic All-State Team for the 2020-21 academic year.
 
Norfolk State men's tennis had a pair of honorees in Ibrahim Abbas and Federico Rebecchini. The track and field program had two athletes on the academic all-state team in Fridah Koech and Evans Cheruiyot, while volleyball player Siera Jones and softball player Alexis Robinson also earned academic all-state accolades.
 
It marked the second year in a row Koech was honored by VaSID with the academic all-state nod. Three of the six in Abbas, Rebecchini and Jones have perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs.
 
Below are the NSU honorees with their name, 2020-21 classification, hometown, GPA, major and sport listed:
 
• Ibrahim Abbas, So., Lahore, Pakistan, 4.0, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Men's Tennis
• Federico Rebecchini, Jr., Verona, Italy, 4.0, General Business-Marketing, Men's Tennis
• Siera Jones, So., Bridgeville, Del., 4.0, Mass Communications-Journalism, Women's Volleyball
• Fridah Koech, Jr., Kericho, Kenya, 3.84, Nursing, Women's Track & Field
• Alexis Robinson, So., Virginia Beach, Va., 3.89, Optical Engineering, Softball
• Evans Cheruiyot, Jr., Iten, Kenya, 3.82, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Men's Track & Field
 
To be eligible, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.25 GPA and be a sophomore or higher in standing. Each school in the state of Virginia can nominate up to six student-athletes.