Hampton 3-sport standout Chris Belch caps stellar career

By: John Grupp
Saturday, June 14, 2025 | 11:45 PM

Hampton’s Chris Belch accomplished something unmatched in the WPIAL this year.

The senior placed in the top two at the district championships in three different sports, winning an individual gold in swimming along with runner-up finishes in cross country and track.

“It was a pretty busy year,” Belch said, “but I think I accomplished what I wanted to.”

Belch capped his remarkable medal haul by taking second in the 1,600-meter run at the WPIAL Class 3A track and field championships May 14 at Slippery Rock.

He had placed second at the WPIAL Class 2A cross country championships in the fall and won a gold medal — the first of his career — in the 100 backstroke at the Class 2A swimming finals in the winter.

No other boy athlete in the WPIAL this year — and certainly not many in the history of the league — achieved so much success in such a variety of sports.

“He was a remarkable athlete,” Hampton cross country and track coach Heather Dietz said. “I’m sad to see him graduate and move on.”

Belch, who started swimming in second grade and running in seventh grade, enjoyed four years of varsity success. As a freshman, he was part of two WPIAL-champion teams: cross country and swimming. As a junior, he helped the cross country team to its third straight WPIAL Class 2A title and the first state crown in program history. All told, Belch accumulated 11 varsity letters — he didn’t run track as a freshman.

“Every season was special and had its own place,” Belch said. “I’m just proud of myself for going into all of them with a goal and working hard each year. To see the progress, year over year, that’s something I’m proud of.”

The 6-foot-1, 165-pound Belch was able to seamlessly move from one sport to the next without seeing any decline in his performance.

Because swimming season leaked into track season, Belch missed the first two weeks of running workouts. But he used a thoughtful routine to get his conditioning where it needed to be.

“He had a great cross country season and a great swimming season, so he was really physically fit going into track,” Dietz said. “We had to work from having sea legs to getting land underneath him. It was a smooth transition for him.”

Belch answered with, by far, his best track season. In the WPIAL 1,600, a race he had finished 19th and 20th the previous two years, he rallied to place second in 4:16.53, knocking more than five seconds off his personal-best time. Seeded seventh and stuck in fifth place entering the last lap, Belch ran the final 400 in a blazing 59.48 and hit the wire only four-tenths of a second behind Notre Dame-bound North Allegheny senior Jack Bertram.

“It was an amazing last lap to watch,” Dietz said. “He really turned it on. We were so excited. I was just really, really proud of him.”

Belch’s senior year began with cross country, the first sport in his annual trifecta. He placed second in the WPIAL Class 2A and fourth in the PIAA, the top finishes of his career.

He moved to the water in the winter, enjoying his best swimming season yet. At the WPIAL Class 2A championships, he won the 100 backstroke and took second in the 100 butterfly with a school-record time (49.49). At states, he brought home silver medals in both events, setting another school record in the 100 back (50.24).

“That was a cool experience,” he said of his gold medal. “There have been a ton of really great athletes who come out of the WPIAL and for me to be standing at the top of the podium at WPIALs was a special feeling.”

In his final high school race, he was 13th in the 1,600 at the PIAA Class 3A championships on May 23 at Shippensburg.

“I knew that was my last race. It was a crazy feeling. It was different,” he said. “I started looking ahead to what will be next.”

Belch, who carried a 4.4 GPA, is enrolled at Pitt, where he will major in engineering and hopes to make the cross country and track teams as a walk-on.

“I”ve been talking with the running coach for the past year,” Belch said. “He’s trying to work with me to find a spot on the team. I don’t think I’m going to start the year on a team, but I will be doing his workouts and he’s going try to get me into some of the races that his boys are going to do and see where I line up. We’ll see where we go from there.”

Tags: Hampton