Adam Steele and Cassie Busse were both awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor this past weekend for their accomplishments in athletics and academics.

Steele was a member of Minnesota’s runner-up 4X400-meter relay team at the 2004 NCAA Championships. He was also a finalist for Academic All-American honors.

Busse led the Gophers to the NCAA volleyball Final Four Tournament this past season and was named to the All-Tournament team. She was the Big Ten Player of the Year and became the first volleyball player to be named a First Team Academic All-American.

Lindsay Whalen

Lindsay Whalen may not win the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award this season, but she’s still pulling in recognition from Minnesota.

Whalen, Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer and member of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, starred in a cable television commercial last season that recently won first-place at the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau’s annual conference.

The advertisement, which has Whalen shooting a head of lettuce into a supermarket scale, won for best single commercial in cable markets with under 75,000 subscribers.

Whalen is currently averaging 7.8 points per game and her 3.9 assists per game rank 10th in the league.