The cross country career of Salisbury’s Shane Artis ended with a solid performance at the 2019 PIAA Class 2A Cross Country Championships last Saturday in Hershey.

Artis finished 75th overall out of 227 runners in 17:35.8. His performance this year was a 29-second improvement over his 2018 performance when he finished in 18:04.

“I think I had a decent race overall,” said Artis. “It definitely helps to be here before. It’s much different than going to a normal meet.”

Strategically, Artis said his goal was to run the first mile in about 5:20. This he accomplished with a 5:17 time. He was also on pace for his second-mile projection, around “10:50-ish.” Only on the last mile did his goal not become a reality.

“The last mile really got me with all the mud and stuff,” said Artis.

There are no more high school cross country races for Artis. As a young man, he was in the rare position of looking back instead of looking ahead.

“Throughout the years I’ve just been trying to progress up and up,” he said when asked to assess his sterling career. “I want to leave a little message for the underclassman that they can do it too. You’ve just got to put in the work. It’s not going to be easy.”

Artis’ cross country career may be done, but his high school athletic career isn’t. He’ll be representing the Falcons in winter and spring sports.

“I’m going to be doing swimming, it gets me in good shape for track,” he said.