Congratulations are in order for juniors Kevin Plawecki and Ariel Turner for winning Purdue's Athletes of the Year for 2011-2012.

Plawecki, as most of you know, is a catcher for the Big Ten Champion Boilermaker baseball team who was recently drafted by the New York Mets and is thus doomed to a life of....being a Met. (Sorry, my Yankeeness is showing. Actually, if Plawecki winds up a Mets regular, I will have no problem at all pulling for him as one of my own.)

Turner is probably lesser known by the masses, but she deserves just as much congratulations from you. From the story linked above:

Turner is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, who received AVCA first team All-America honors and second team Academic All-America accolades. She ranked in the top six nationally in both kills per set (4.84) and points per set (5.46), also leading the Big Ten in both categories.

Plawecki and Turner will now be the Purdue representatives for the Big Ten Conference Athlete of the Year awards, to be voted on by the conference media and announced on the BTN at 7:30 PM, ET, this coming Monday, 6/18.