ABOVE: Cadence Leiding and Dominick Lund-May are this year’s Fairmont Triple A award winners for excellency in Arts, Academics, and Athletics.

FAIRMONT – Cadence Leiding and Dominick Lund-May are Fairmont High School’s 2025 Triple A winners.

The Triple A Award honors the most well-rounded students in a given school. Arts, Academics and Athletics are the three A’s considered when selecting two students. Fairmont’s two were selected out of a pool of 135 students in the senior class.

This year’s female winner is Cadence Leiding. For arts, she has played trumpet in band since fifth grade, jazz band since ninth and in the fall musical since seventh. She’s done plays since third grade and dance competitions since she was three. She is also a member of the Fairmont Dance Team.

For Leiding, art has been a way to express who she is.

“It’s something where you can really take your feelings and put it fully into that,” she said. “I feel like it was really important for my mental health as well. It helped me grow passion.”

Athletically, Leiding has devoted her time to volleyball since third grade, soccer since she was five years old, and track since 2020. Outside of school, she also competes in summer softball. She said this extensive athletic pedigree has given her plenty of applicable skills.

“It helped me with leadership and teamwork,” Leiding said. “For some sports, you need to work as a team, and for some, you need to be more of a leader. They all have their own individual and team aspects. You have to grow your skills individually, but you also have to be able to put them together as a team.”

In academics, Leiding has sought to put her best foot forward. Thanks to the number of PSEO and AP college-level courses she has taken at Fairmont, she will graduate from high school with an associate of arts degree.

“I took a college-level psychology as well as a college-level Abnormal Psychology course,” Leiding said. “I took a PSEO criminal justice course, and I enjoyed [all] of those. I found that’s something I was interested in. I’ve been focusing on taking more courses if I can that are centered towards those.”

This head start looks to serve Leiding well in her future pursuits.

She plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Stout to study Criminal Justice and Psychology. From there, she wants to get her masters in Forensic Psychology and pursue one of the many careers she said this opens for her.

For extracurriculars, Leiding is treasurer on Student Council and works with special needs kids through United Cardinals. She said receiving the Triple A award feels very honoring.

“I know so many people that do so many things,” Leiding said. “To be chosen for this award is special and helps me know all my efforts have been recognized because it takes a lot to achieve this.”

Lund-May has devoted his time in the arts to band, speech and debate, which he says fall under the brand of classical arts. In addition, he participates in knowledge bowl and math league as well. Lund-May said each art has built his skills.

“Speech and Debate provide a drive for self-improvement and competitiveness,” he said. “Knowledge bowl and math league help create a team environment. You understand you need to cooperate with others to answer questions correctly. Band fosters your creativity. It introduces you to a wealth of musical pieces and allows you to seek out your own to learn new techniques.”

Academically, Lund-May has taken several AP math classes. He also takes College-in-School English courses like Literature and Composition and PSEO calculus, biochemistry, government and economics.

“All these opportunities let you expand your horizons and choose your career path,” Lund-May said. “Anatomy was instrumental in this. It introduced me to a variety of topics in the health field and got me interested in possibly pursuing a major that focuses on human health.”

Tennis is the only athletic pursuit for Lund-May currently, which he said he’s done since he was little. He said the people are what drew him into it.

“When I was younger, it was teen tennis camps,” Lund-May said “As I’ve grown older, it’s captains. The older people in tennis showed me how to be a leader and taught me to try and embody that for the next generation. Teaching you not only to be a good player, but also a good role model for others.”

Lund-May has also gotten the opportunity to represent Fairmont and all of District 1 schools as one of four Minnesota Youth Council representatives. Currently, Lund-May is the congressional district chair because he has served for three years.

“We’re an organization that helps represent students across Minnesota and provide that youth voice,” he said. “Right now we’re talking about career and technical education courses, as well as voting rights for students on school boards. In the past two years, I focused on water quality. I’ve worked with Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, University of Minnesota and Our Streets Minnesota.”

Moving forward, Lund-May plans to attend college for Biochemistry or Biomedical Engineering. Currently, he has the University of Wisconsin-Madison as his top choice. He said receiving the Triple A award is a very significant achievement.

“It shows the drive I’ve put in, the effort I spent does culminate into being a more complete person,” Lund-May said. “I also think it elevates my status as a role model. It proves to people I’m trying to inspire that they can achieve higher ambitions as well.”