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Lansing, Spotts named to CVAC All-Academic Team

Lake Placid’s Ellen Lansing runs toward the finish line during the Section VII cross country championship in Elizabethtown on Nov. 5. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Two Lake Placid High School seniors who excel in sports were recently honored because of their excellence in the classroom.

Ellen Lansing and Tristan Spotts were named to the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference’s Fall 2021 John J. Herbert All-Academic Team. The award is given out to one male and one female athlete from each school in the CVAC each sports season.

Lansing and Spotts both said they were honored to be recognized for being able to successfully balance sports and academics. Lansing was on the girl’s cross country running team, and Spotts was a member of the boys soccer team.

Ellen Lansing

Lake Placid’s Tristan Spotts leaps to block a pass from an AuSable Valley player during the Section VII Class C boys soccer sectional semifinal game on Saturday, Oct 23. The Blue Bombers defeated AuSable Valley in a shootout after finishing the regulation 0-0. The team advanced to the sectional final game. (Provided photo — Alicia Brandes)

Lansing helped guide her team to a sectional title this fall.

“I could tell from the beginning of the season that we had such an amazing team,” she said. “It was a totally different experience. Just going through the season and having such high expectations and to be really hopeful and way more competitive it was really cool.”

Lansing, who joined the cross country team in eighth grade, said she began running because she was bored and wanted to find something to keep her in shape for figure skating, which she has competed in for 10 years. Ultimately, she fell in love with cross country.

Lansing is also a member of the high school’s track team, where she has received a gold letter.

Though sports have also played a big role in her time at the high school, she said her favorite thing is making a difference in the environment. In middle school, she joined the Environmental Club for something to do. Now she is the president of the club, and her passion for the environment continues to grow.

“I always sort of had an interest in climate change and that sort of thing and it kind of took off from there,” she said. “More and more opportunities kept opening up for me, and I kept taking them and my passion kept on growing and growing.”

Lansing has presented to the Smithsonian about Placid Earth Composting, which she said was one of her biggest accomplishments so far.

“When stuff like that happens, it’s such a nice feeling,” she said. “I feel like I’m actually making a change and a difference and that makes me feel really good. It’s also stuff that I love to do.”

While competing in sports or making a difference in the world, Lansing’s balance between the two haven’t been easy.

“It’s definitely been difficult, and there has definitely been a few long nights,” she said. “I’ve been tired. It’s been hard sometimes. I enjoy the stress of it all sometimes.”

After high school, Lansing plans to attend a college where she will major in environmental science.

“My ultimate goal is to be either an architect or a field environmental scientist so that I can travel and see the world while also making it a better place,” she said.

Tristan Spotts

Spotts, who started playing soccer around the third grade, played a key role in helping his soccer team win a sectional title. He said winning the sectional title was a big moment and that he didn’t really think the team was going to win, especially since they finished the regular season with a record of 4-7.

“We were determined to win, but I didn’t think we were gonna be that let down if we didn’t,” Spotts said. “But it was really nice to win. Especially during my senior year because I didn’t envision that happening during the preseason.”

For Spotts, it was not his first sectional title. As a four-year varsity athlete in three sports — soccer, hockey and tennis — he’s had his fair share of glory. He won a sectional title with the Saranac Lake Placid boys hockey team in 2020 — the first year the team merged with Saranac Lake — and came up just shy in the boys doubles tennis final last season.

Even while playing sports all year long, Spotts still manages to find time for making a difference at the high school. For the past three years, he has been the class president and is a Student Council member.

“I feel like there is a lot less student involvement nowadays in high school,” he said. “I, at least, want to have a say in what we do because I think it is important.”

Spotts is also a member of Science Olympiad and has accumulated more than 80 hours of community service. He said balancing sports and academics has not been too hard the past couple of years, during the pandemic in particular, but this year has been trickier.

“Last year we kind of got a break with having more time for academics and less time with sports, because sports were obviously limited,” he said. “This year, since I have pretty difficult classes with three sports, it’s been a lot of late nights. But I know I’ll do the work. I just have to have the motivation to do it.”

Spotts said he is most proud about being the salutatorian for his class. That designation proved to himself that he did a good job in high school.

After high school graduation, Spotts plans to major in psychology at a college in a more urban setting. He said he wants to travel abroad at some point to continue learning Spanish.

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