Emily Wong (CEHS) and Seth Wiedel (CBA) captured two of the Huskers’ most coveted awards April 13, as they were named Nebraska Female and Male Student-Athletes of the Year at the UNL Student-Athlete Recognition Banquet at the Embassy Suites in downtown Lincoln.
As Nebraska’s Student-Athletes of the Year, Wong and Wiedel will be UNL’s recipients of the Big Ten Medal of Honor. The conference’s most exclusive award was the first of its kind in intercollegiate athletics to recognize academic and athletic excellence.
The Big Ten Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1915 to one student-athlete from the graduating class of each university who had “attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work.” Big Ten schools currently feature more than 8,200 student-athletes, but only 24 earn this prestigious award on an annual basis. In the 99 years of the Medal of Honor, more than 1,300 student-athletes have earned this distinction.
Wong and Wiedel are the fifth and sixth Huskers to earn the honor since Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011-12.
“It is truly an honor,” Wong said. “Competing for Nebraska is a dream come true and to get this honor is a blessing. I am so thankful for all of the support everyone has provided me since I have been here. Being a Husker has been an unbelievable experience and being named female student-athlete of the year only makes it more memorable.”
As a senior, Wong led coach Dan Kendig’s Husker women’s gymnastics team to the Big Ten title while powering the Huskers to the 12-team NCAA Championships, April 18-20 in Birmingham, Ala. Along the way, Wong cemented her position as one of the nation’s top all-around student-athletes.
The 2014 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, Wong won the Big Ten title on floor after posting just the second 10 on the event in Nebraska history. She added a Big Ten title on beam with a career-high 9.95 on the event in 2014, after winning four individual Big Ten crowns in 2013.
The 2014 Seattle Regional All-Around champion, Wong shared event titles on floor and bars at the Seattle Regional to help the Huskers advance to the national championships.
In addition to her remarkable accomplishments in competition, Wong was a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2013 and was named the winner of the Big Ten’s Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship. She is a finalist for the 2014 AAI Award presented to the nation’s top women’s gymnastics student-athlete. The native of Grand Forks, N.D., is a three-time NACGC/W Scholastic All-American and a three-time academic All-Big Ten selection. She is a two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar as a nutrition science major at Nebraska.
Wong is the fifth women’s gymnast in Husker history to win Nebraska’s Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Year award.