honorable mention

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A citation given to one who has performed well in a competition but has not been awarded a prize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun idiomatic An award or recognition given to something that does not make it to a higher standing but is worth mentioning in an honorable way.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an official recognition of merit