Upper St. Clair siblings rule pool
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Abby Matheny demonstrates that winning form that enabled her to capture the gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle during the WPIAL swimming championships.
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Josh Matheny comes up for air during the 100-yard breaststroke race. The Upper St. Clair senior won the event in 54.94 during the WPIAL swimming championships.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Abby Matheny
Abby and Josh Matheny share a close bond that rivalry cannot break. The Upper St. Clair siblings genuinely care for one another and root wholeheartedly for each other to succeed in the pool.
“I am happy to have a little brother,” Abby said. “Because we share swimming it has brought us closer.”
“Abby really helps me a lot, particularly mentally,” Josh added. “She’s helped me be more confident.
“We help each other,” he continued. “We look out for each other and we push each other to accomplish our goals.”
During the WPIAL swimming championships held March 1-2 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool, Abby and Josh, indeed reached their goals. Each grabbed gold medals in their premier events and qualified in four different races for the PIAA championships set for March 14-17 at Bucknell University.
Abby coasted to victory in the 200-yard freestyle. She won the race in 1:51.38 time.
“I took it out fast because I knew all the other girls I would be racing would do that too,” Abby said. “They are all very good competitors. I knew we all would be in the race. So to bring home the gold was awesome. I have no complaints.”
Abby won the 200 as a sophomore, but she took third last year as a junior. So to recover her title meant much to the senior, who will swim for Williams College.
“This was kind of awesome,” said Abby, who maintains a 4.0 GPA. “It feels great to win and go out with a bang because it is my senior year.”
Abby almost went out with a double bang as she led a parade of teammates to the podium in the 500 free. While Abby secured the silver, Olivia Shaffer took the bronze and Sophia Schlichting finished sixth.
The showing helped the Lady Panthers secure runner-up honors in the team standings. USC edged out Mt. Lebanon, 255-252, for the second-place trophy while North Allegheny won top honors for the 10th year in a row with a 327 score.
“This is so exciting,” Abby said of unseating Lebo as runner-up. “I race for my team not for my brother or to keep up with him. It’s all about my teammates and getting to states.”
Because the top three finishers in each event advance to the PIAA championships, Abby helped drag some of her teammates along to Bucknell University.
She anchored USC’s 200 free relay team of Taylor Connors, Abby Rutkowski and Shaffer to a silver medal in 1:36.50, .34 off the winning pace set by North Allegheny. She led off the 400 relay. The unit, which included Ynyra Bohan, Shaffer and Connors, took third behind NA and Mt. Lebanon.
While Abby is the seasoned veteran, Josh enjoyed his debut in the WPIAL. After taking third in the 200 individual medley, he captured the gold in the 100 breaststoke in 59.94.
“Yes,” he admitted. “I was nervous. I did not know what the rest of the field was capable of doing.”
Abby knew Josh would do well.
“He’s really, really fast,” Abby said. “But I knew he was going to do well. He works really, really hard and deserves whatever he get.”
Dave Schraven, the USC skipper, agreed.
“Josh and Abby are both great kids. And hard workers,” he said. “They have not gotten where they are just on talent.”
Though just a freshman, Josh possesses oodles of talent. This past summer, he shattered the Allegheny Mountain Swimming records in the 100- and 200-meter breast. In fact, he holds the No. 1 mark in the country for 14-year-old swimmers.
Acknowledging that he has competed in big meets before, Josh felt that prepared him for his first WPIAL meet.
“That helped a lot, particularly with getting psyched up before a race,” he said. “Since it was my first time and I was nervous, I tried to feed off the crowd and the energy.”
Matheny won the breast event with a 54.94 time, which was a scant .12 off the WPIAL record of 54.82 set in 2016 by Mt. Lebanon’s Jack Lanphear.
“I had in my mind the record but that was not my goal. I wanted to see where I could go. This meet was important to get my name out there in the WPIAL.”
Josh’s name could be included in tutorials on how to swim the breast. In fact, Schraven says he has “textbook” technique.
“I tell my kids to watch him if they want to learn how to do the breaststroke,” Schraven said. “Josh is very efficient. There are no wasted motions in his stroke. Josh has always been a good swimmer but he’s done a lot of work to fine tune his stroke and go faster.”
The Mathenys plan to go faster at states and cement their names further in PIAA lore. Abby is looking to improve upon last year’s fourth-place finish in states and Josh is looking to do better than he did during his debut.
“The goal is to get a best time,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“The goal is always states first,” Abby added. “It’s really all about states.”
Nevertheless, their WPIAL performances drew high praise.
“To see these two be successful is satisfying,” Schraven said. “Their rewards are the result of how hard they work.”