If you had to use one word to describe Upper Darby middle distance runner Josh Sharp, it would be “driven.”
Sharp came into the outdoor track season with two goals: To be a state champion in the 800-meter run and to break the 1 minute, 50 second mark in the event. Those objectives motivated him the entire season.
Upper Darby coach Kelsey Bierling firmly believed that both were well within his reach.
“Once he committed to being better, that was it,” Bierling said. “We all knew he had it as a freshman. He just had to put his mind to it. When he did, it just clicked. He went to work. He just committed to it and once he committed to it his work ethic was immense. This year we all knew he was going to go under 1:50. It wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of when.”
Upper Darby’s Josh Sharp runs the 400 meters at the Delco Championships last month. (PETE BANNAN/MediaNews Group)
That day finally came a week after he became the first Delco athlete to win the 800 at the PIAA Class 3A Championships in 42 years when he turned in a blistering time of 1:47.22 to win the 800 at the Under Armour Track & Field National at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
That mark shattered the Delaware County and Pennsylvania records, and was the ninth-fastest time ever recorded by a U.S. high school runner in the event, according to Track & Field News. The Delco mark was 1:49.24 set by Penn Wood’s Mark Fowler in 1984. Fowler also was the last Delco athlete to win the 800 at states. The state record was 1:48.07 set by Bishop Shanahan’s Josh Hoey in 2018. Sharp’s time would have placed him sixth at the NCAA Division I championships this year.
While the 800 is his specialty, it was not his only event. Sharp is also an accomplished 400-meter runner. He ranked fourth in the state in the event, according to pa.milesplit.com, and was a key member of Upper Darby’s successful 4 x 400-meter relay team. He anchored the Royals to a third-place finish at the PIAA Championships, a victory in the Central League Race and second in the Philadelphia Area 4×4 at the Penn Relays.
For those efforts, Sharp was named the Daily Times Athlete of the Year in boys track. He is the third Upper Darby athlete to be so honored, joining Lavar Jackson in 2023 and Donovan St. Louis in 2015.
Joining Sharp on the All-Delco team, which was selected by the Daily Times sports staff in conjunction with the county coaches are: Upper Darby teammate Daniel Chukwu; Jonathan Wert of Garnet Valley; Abaas Hunter and Kaleb Young from Episcopal Academy; James Hawkins, Isaiah Bland and Ahijah Goins from Haverford School; Strath Haven’s Derrick Bradley and Zachary Chandler; Marple Newtown’s Reed Pennington and Alex Williams; Landon Waller of Cardinal O’Hara; Ricky Mason from Penn Wood; Penncrest’s Ryan Gallagher; and Ben Ouattara from Chichester.
Hunter is a four-time, first team selection. Sharp, Wert, Chukwu, Hawkins and Gallagher made the team for the second year in a row. Sharp, Wert, Hunter, Mason and Gallagher are seniors. Hawkins is a sophomore. The rest are juniors.
Sharp’s development into the top 800 runner in the Class of 2026 began in the summer of his freshman year. Sharp ran a 2:25.71 in the 800 as an eighth-grader at Beverly Hills Middle School in 2022. A little over a year later, in July of 2023, Sharp turned in a time of 1:56.23 while running for Delco United Track Club in the preliminary round of the 15-16 division at the AAU Primary and Club Nationals in Orlando, Fla. He ran 1:56.41 in the final to earn a silver medal.
After that Sharp, never went slower than 1:58.34 in the outdoor season in his career.
Sharp came to track at the suggestion of his mother, Sonya. She encouraged him to give it a try. He started with the Delco Stallions in Sharon Hill, then switched to Delco United Track Club in Haverford while also running for Beverly Hills.
“I wouldn’t say I took to it right away,” Sharp said.
That, though, would change.
“When I went from 2:25 to 1:56, that made me realize that I had the potential to be good,” Sharp said.
That’s when he started to set his sights on winning a state title and breaking 1:50. Sharp came close to that first goal when he was second in the 800 at the Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association indoor state championships as a junior and third as a senior. He was second at the PIAA Championships in his junior outdoor season.
“Losing back-to-back times lit a fire under me,” Sharp said. “It made me determined going into my senior year.”
Running 1:50.58 at the New Balance Nationals last summer enabled him to set his sights on breaking 1:50. Running 1:50-point two more times as a senior stoked his motivation even more.
“It felt amazing,” Sharp said of his record-breaking performance. “It was like a big relief. It was a big reward for all of the training that I did. It meant a lot to be able to represent myself, my school and my state in that way.”
Sharp’s life took another turn in July when he switched his college commitment from Penn State to Auburn. He changed after Ryan Foster, who recruited him to Penn State, left the Nittany Lions to become the associate head coach of the Tigers. Foster is known for developing top flight 800 runners.
“It happened kind of fast,” Sharp said. “I got an email from the head coach at Penn State telling me that Coach Foster had left. I reached out to Coach Foster and he texted me to give him a call. That’s how it all went down.”
Sharp plans to major in biomedical sciences with a pre-physician assistant path. He’s looking forward to competing in the SEC, which produced three of the top five finishers in the 800 at NCAAs in 2026.
“I’m excited,” Sharp said. “It’s an opportunity to compete against the best.”