Hampton’s Josh Wukitch motivated for return to WPIAL championships

By: John Grupp
Saturday, October 18, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Hampton’s top cross country runner is swapping a walking boot for racing spikes for the WPIAL Class 2A championships.

Junior Josh Wukitch, who missed last year’s finals with a broken foot, is back to full strength and motivated for his return to the WPIAL meet Oct. 23 at White Oak Park.

“I’m definitely hungry for some action,” Wukitch said. “It’s been a long time since I felt this good.”

For sure, he has never run faster. Wukitch placed ninth out of 197 Class 2A runners at the Red, White & Blue Classic last month with a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 24 seconds, and took fourth out of 192 runners at the Grove City Invitational on Oct. 4.

“He is highly motivated,” first-year boys coach Kim Masarik said. “He has very big goals.”

Wukitch is eager to return to WPIALs after attending last year’s championships in a walking boot and serving as “Hampton’s No. 1 cheerleader” while recovering from a broken foot.

Wukitch, who burst onto the scene two years ago as the WPIAL Class 2A’s top freshman runner, was injured at the 2024 Red, White & Blue and missed the rest of his sophomore season.

“Halfway through the race, the pain went from like a three to an eight,” he said. “It was a stress fracture originally, but I thought the pain was just muscular fatigue. I kept running on it until eventually I raced on it, and it broke.”

Wukitch said the discomfort was chalked up to Morton’s neuroma, a painful thickening of the nerve tissue in the ball of the foot.

“I went home, and three days later, I went to the hospital because my body was going into shock,” he said. “Eventually, after a couple more days, we figured out I had a broken foot.”

Wukitch missed about three months for healing and physical therapy and returned for light work in the spring for outdoor track. This fall, he has led the boys cross country team in its bid to reach the PIAA championships for the fifth straight year.

“It’s nice to be running again,” he said. “I’ve been very grateful this year, just being able to run in general.”

The WPIAL Class 2A defending champion Hampton girls team also is getting good news. Top runner Claire McKinney is expected to return after missing a couple of weeks with a sprained ankle. McKinney, who placed seventh at WPIALs last year, was planning to run at the Tri-State Invitational on Oct. 16 at White Oak Park to tune up for the WPIAL championships.

“We are all systems go,” girls coach Heather Dietz said. “She has been easing her way back.”

The Talbots also feature juniors Rebekah Hall and Karina Bonnar, who were top-30 finishers at last year’s WPIAL championships and have continued to get faster this season.

“Ideally, we would love to do our best,” Hall said, “but we’ve had a lot of injuries this season and a lot of girls haven’t been able to run all of the races. So, really, I just want us all to be able to run and enjoy it and have fun.”

Tags: Hampton