Seth Slavin remembers vividly the moment he knew Lehigh University was right for him.

"I went in the lunch room, and I was like, 'I can see myself sitting in here. I can see myself with my teammates,'" Slavin recalled of his visit to the school.The Pleasant Valley senior made his decision official this week, announcing he will join 2016 Pleasant Valley graduate Jenn Mickens at Lehigh to continue his academic and athletic career.Slavin will participate in cross country and track and field, and major in Electrical Engineering.For Slavin, Lehigh offered the perfect balance of athletics and academics."It's a little bit of everything that Lehigh had that made it the perfect fit," he said. "It's a beautiful campus, with wonderful people, amazing engineering, a wonderful staff, wonderful coaches, wonderful guys on the team. Everything about it when I went there was great."Athletically, Slavin's senior year has been his most impressive yet.Slavin capped a stellar cross country campaign in the fall with a 16th place finish in the Class 3A race at the PIAA Championships before being names the Times News Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year for the second straight season. Slavin also won District 11 and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference cross country titles last fall.The spring has brought more accolades for Slavin, who cruised to a District 11 Class 3A title in the 3200 last week. Slavin also qualified for this weekend's state meet in the 1600, and helped the Bears' 3200 relay team make it to Shippensburg.But it's perhaps Slavin's academic accomplishments that are most impressive.Slavin is a member of the National Honor Society, helped start the Math Club at Pleasant Valley, is the president of the Science Club, and is a member of the German National Honor Society, to name a few.That work hasn't gone unnoticed, as Slavin earned one of 400 National Honor Society scholarships this year.Recently, Slavin, along with Nazareth senior Victoria Palochik, were named the 2017 Coordinated Health Athlete of the Year award winners. The honor carries with it a $10,000 scholarship award.Slavin's coaches have watched him grow from talented freshman to a well-rounded student-athlete."Seth will be successful at Lehigh because he has also matured as a runner," said Pleasant Valley cross country coach George Fair. "He not only evaluates his racing, but his training as well. Starting in his freshman year, after the season came to a close, he would sit down with me and plan the summer and the next season's training. Seth would share his personal feelings regarding his training and I would share my goals for him both short term and long term."It is this self evaluation that will benefit him greatly as he enters the collegiate level of cross country and track at Lehigh. Seth has been a pleasure to work with over his four years at Pleasant Valley and will be missed by the team."Bears' track and field coach Michelle Piontkowski echoed those sentiments."Seth has always been a hard worker both in the classroom and on the track," she said. "I remember watching him run as a seventh grader and I couldn't wait until he became a freshman to run for our varsity team. Seth has learned a lot about himself as a runner, over the last four years."He has always had that thirst for knowledge, so I believe that he will be making an immediate impact on the cross country and track teams at Lehigh as well as in the classroom."While his coaches - and others - heap praise on him, Slavin is keen to thank those that have helped him reach such great heights during his career.It's that unselfishness that will endure long after Slavin runs his final race for Pleasant Valley."Just the Pleasant Valley community, it's so encouraging to me to see people out here cheering me on, my family," Slavin said. "It really means a lot to me for people to go out there and spend their time to ask me how my races were, to wish me good luck. People do say it a lot, and when I take a step back, I really appreciate it a lot."