Shane Artis wants to end his high school cross country career on a memorable note.

The fact is he’s already had many memorable notes in a memorable career at Salisbury High School. He produced another great memory during the District 11 Class 2A Cross Country Championships held Oct. 23 at DeSales University, as he finished fourth in 17:09.

The finish qualified him for the PIAA Cross Country Championships, his third straight appearance in Hershey.

Following the race, Artis said he was “pleased with how I ran” and said the DeSales course was challenging.

Artis’ career has been all about consistently overcoming challenges. As a freshman, the brilliant runner was injured in leagues and as result did not run in districts.

During his sophomore year in 2017, Artis stepped up and became a leader on the Falcon roster, even as an underclassman. His solid year ended with a ninth place finish in leagues, an eighth place mark and a 60th place finish in states.

In 2018, Artis truly came into his own. He improved his times in each of the major runs, claiming a fifth-place finish at leagues and third at districts. He capped his impressive season with a workmanlike showing in Hershey. In that race, Artis ran an intelligent race on a course battered by a hard rain the night before the competition and fierce wind gusts during race day. Artis finished 59th out of 228 runners in the Class 2A field in a time of 18:04.

“Pretty bad,” was his response when asked to assess that performance after the race. “I was trying to go for the top 25 in the first mile. I had nothing left at the end.”

Artis wants this trip to Hershey to end differently and hopes to “run my best race yet” in his final trip to state competition and in his final high school race.

Thomas Smigo of Palisades won the 2A title in a brisk 16:28. The other two runners who finished ahead of Artis were Pen Argyl’s Anthony Coppolella and Saucon Valley’s Matthew Chaikowsky.

Overall, the Falcons finished in 17th place with 378 points.

DISTRICT 11

CROSS COUNTRY

At DeSales University

BOYS

Class 2A

Team scores and legend

*1. Northwestern Lehigh (NW) 109, *2. Palisades (Pali) 111, 3. Notre Dame-GP (NDGP) 111, 4. Central Catholic (CC) 113, 5. Blue Mountain (BM) 165, 6. Pen Argyl (PA) 175, 7. Saucon Valley (SV) 188, 8. Bangor (Ban) 203, 9. Palmerton (Palm) 257, 10. Wilson (Wil) 267, 11. Pine Grove (PG) 277, 12. North Schuylkill (NS) 297, 13. Tamaqua (Tam) 335, 14. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 359, 15. Lehighton (Leh) 368, 16. Jim Thorpe (JT) 372, 17. Salisbury (Sal) 378.

Individual results

(Top-20 plus other Salisbury finishers)

*1. Thomas Smigo (Pali) 16:28, *2. Anthony Coppolella (PA) 16:36, *3. Matthew Chaikowsky (SV) 16:46, *4. Shane Artis (Sal) 17:09, *5. Marino Bubba (Ban) 17:09, *6. Cody Smith (NDGP) 17:25, *7. Travis Anderson (PG) 17:33, *8. Jack Flynn (NS) 17:37, *9. Nathan Harris (CC) 17:41, *10. Mike Driscoll (CC) 17:43, *11. Justin Williams (NS) 17:47, 12. Colin Phipps (BM) 17:51, 13. Aaron Koehler (Wil) 17:52.3, *14. Cole Chukoskie (NW) 17:52.8, 15. Owen Fitzgerald (NDGP) 17:54.3, 16. Justice Scheidel (BM) 17:54.7, 17. Declan Fitzgerald (NDGP) 17:59, *18. Matthew Santana (NW) 18:00, 19. Jacob Huber (SV) 18:01, *20. Samuel Bower (NW) 18:08, 61. Carver Moyer (Sal) 19:38, 100. Kyle Artis (Sal) 21:46, 104. Carl Stuart (Sal) 21:56, 117. Kieren Connelly (Sal) 24:40, Loius Mongilutz (Sal) 25:17, 121. Sawyer Wiggins (Sal) 28:33.

Class 2A

Team scores and legend

*1. Northwestern Lehigh (NW) 83, 2. North Schuylkill (NS) 98, 3. Central Catholic (CC) 104, 4. Tamaqua (Tam) 109, 5. Blue Mountain (BM) 133, 6. Wilson (Wil) 151, 7. Palisades (Pali) 165, 8. Lehighton (Leh) 166, 9. Jim Thorpe (JT) 184, 10. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 227, 11. Saucon Valley (SV) 252.

Individual results

(Top-20 plus other Salisbury finishers)

*1. Olivia Haas (BM) 18:18, *2. Cori McCormick (NS) 19:10, *3. Grace Stegemerten (Tam) 20:07, *4. Ryley Schwalm (NS) 20:08, *5. Isabel DeVos (CC) 20:19, *6. Angelina Klein (NW) 20:24.5, 7. Mel Love (PG) 20:24.8, 8. Katie McCormick (NS) 20:25, 9. Alyssa Errico (Wil) 20:34, 10. Margaret Burke (BC) 20:43, 11. Jillian Pote (Wil) 20:58, 12. Frances Kabana (Tam) 21:09, 13. Sara Reguera (Pali) 21:13, 14. Kelsey Gaston (Leh) 21:25, 15. Katelynn Bos (JT) 21:27, *16. Kailyn Jones (NW) 21:36, 17. Amy Farese (Pali) 21:42, *18. Molly McGorry (NW) 21:48, 19. Emma Szydlow (SV) 21:53, 20. Brianna Dumond (Tam) 21:57, 68. Eliza Wiener (Sal) 26:06, 78. Logan Woods (Sal) 29:25.