Upper St. Clair swimmer golden at states
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Josh Matheny captured the gold in the 100-yard breaststroke during the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships. The Upper St. Clair freshman is the first ninth-grader to win an individual state title at the Class AAA level since Kyle Dudzinski won the 100-yard backstroke in 2008.
6. Swim sensation
Josh Matheny dominated the swimming scene in 2018. The Upper St. Clair sophomore left his mark at the national and state level. At the USA Swimming Speedo Junior Nationals held in California this summer, Matheny recorded one of the fastest times ever (52.89) in winning the 100-meter breaststroke in the 15-16 age group. He also secured silver in the 200-meter distance. During the scholastic season, Matheny became the first freshman since 2008 to win an individual state title at the Class AAA level. Matheny, who also placed eighth in the IM at states, was the WPIAL champion in the breaststroke, finishing a scant .12 off the district record, and the bronze medalist in the IM. He helped Upper St. Clair grab the runner-up trophy in the team competition.
Likewise, Matheny's sister, Abby, helped the Lady Panthers claim runner-up honors, too. While North Allegheny won both team titles, the USC girls edged rival Mt. Lebanon, 255-252, for second place. She won the 200-yard freestyle race.
Other swim highlights in 2018 included: Trinity Ward winning her third WPIAL title in the 100-yard butterfly and Lebo's medley relay of Hannah Morelli, Maddie Dorish, Ward and Libby McDyer upsetting NA to win the WPIAL title in .74 seconds.
In diving, Owen John finished as the WPIAL runner-up for the second year in a row while his teammate, Lucas Bumgarner, finished fourth, and both qualified for the PIAA championships.
In amateur swimming, Judy Caves of Mt. Lebanon successfully competed in the New York Open Waters Swim. The 58-year-old guidance counselor at Seton LaSalle High School swam under 20 bridges while circumnavigating Manhattan.
Josh Matheny is a PIAA champion for many reasons. The primary one could very well be his mother, Kristin. She introduced her son to swimming 10 years ago.
“She wanted me to learn so I knew how to swim when we would go to the beach in the summer for vacation,” said the 15-year-old son of Jeff Matheny.
So Matheny stopped playing hockey and lacrosse. He was a standout center and defenseman in hockey until the eighth grade. He played lacrosse until seventh grade.
“I learned to swim like everybody else,” he said. “I enjoyed it and it seemed to come natural to me. Since I was pretty good at it, I switched over and I never looked back.”
Today, even his mother, who was a standout breaststroker at North Hills High School and Bowdoin College in Maine, has been left in Matheny’s wake.
The Upper St. Clair freshman etched his name in the annals of PIAA history when he claimed gold during the state championships held March 14-17 at Bucknell University. He breezed to victory in the 100-yard breaststroke in 54.55. That’s .88 off the record pace set by Olympic gold medalist Brendan Hansen back in 2000.
Plus, Matheny became the first freshman since 2008 to win an individual state title at the Class AAA level. That was when another USC product, Kyle Dudzinski, captured gold in the 100-yard backstroke.
“Oh, I know them,” Matheny said of Dudzinski and his brother, Ryan, who swims at Stanford University. “They are very, very good. They come back here and swim with us over the summer.
“Yes, I have raced them,” he continued. “I lose everything except the breaststroke.”
Eventually, Matheny may turn the tables on the Dudzinski brothers as he did on his competition at states, predicts USC swim coach David Schraven.
“Josh will have a very successful high school career,” he said. “I know he has his sights set on the state breaststroke record (which is 53.6), and I’m sure he’s going to continue to improve his IM and become a more complete swimmer, who will score just as well in that event as he does in the breast.”
In the individual medley, Matheny placed eighth overall and earned All-State acclaim. His time was 1:53.05. That mark was well off the winning pace of 1:46.09 clocked by Rick Mihm from North Allegheny.
Of the IM outcome, Matheny said he was fine with the result but “upset” he did not swim a best time.
“I love swimming the IM because I love swimming all four strokes and it takes strategy to be a good IM swimmer,” he said. “For someone like me, it’s go strong for the first 100 and still be in the race and bring it on in the third stroke because it’s the breast and hold the lead in the freestyle.”
But there is nothing like standing on top the podium. Matheny said he enjoyed the view when they draped the gold medal around his neck after winning the breaststroke.
“It’s spectacular,” he said. “There is nothing like it. Standing on the top step and looking out there at all the people. It’s special.”
Special is achieving the objectives you set for yourself. Matheny wanted to lower his time and he did. After the preliminaries, Matheny emerged with a personal record.
“Even though I came in as the top seed, I knew the kids would be fast. I looked forward to racing them but when I won in the morning that boosted my confidence for coming back for my night swim. That’s when I definitely realized I could do it.”
Matheny’s final was not without tension. Though he said he felt really good over the first 75 yards, Matheny needed to summon the energy to surge to the finish line because the race was a dead-heat at that point.
“It’s never a good feeling to be even with people,” he said. “You always want to be ahead”
Because of his back-end speed, Matheny always finishes stronger than he starts.
“Though I was feeling good, I got my second wind and pulled away. There was a noticeable surge,” he noted. “After that I never looked back.”
When he looked up at the scoreboard, Matheny experienced a jumble of emotions.
“At first, it was disbelief,” he said. “Amazing, because I’m a freshman. But when I realized I had actually won, I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Just because he is now one of the youngest swimmers to win a gold medal at states, doesn’t mean Matheny is resting on his laurels. This past Sunday, he was back in the pool preparing for his last meet of the season, Sectionals. On average, he swims 7-to-8,000 yards a day but on Thursdays and Sundays he can churn out 10-to-11,000 yards.
Matheny should perform well at sectionals as he has managed some of his top times in the past on the national level. In fact, during the summer of 2017, he shattered the Allegheny Mountain Swimming record in the 100-meter breaststroke and submitted the best time in the country among 14-year-old competitors. His time was also the fifth fastest ever performed by someone in his age group.
Performing on the national level has helped Matheny. It enables him to remain calm under pressure during his scholastic meets.
“Because he has performed well at several different national-level meets, I don’t think Josh feels any undue amount of pressure that he hasn’t already experienced before,” said Schraven. “We focus on the process and time goal so that allows Josh to block out what other swimmers may or may not be doing.”
While he is only looking to swim “best times” at sectionals, Matheny plans on doing a lot more in swimming long before his career is through. He said that the Olympics are in the back of his head. “But not a front goal,” he added. He wants to swim in college but has not defined his “dream school” yet.
“I just want to keep getting better and more experienced as I reach the higher levels,” he said of his modest goals.
Already he admits that he has learned many things during his inaugural year of scholastic swimming. The most important?
“Age really doesn’t matter,” he replied.
Who is he: PIAA gold medalist in the 100-yard breaststroke
Age: 15
Birthdate: Oct. 16
School: Upper St. Clair
Year: Freshman
Parents: Kristin and Jeff
Siblings: Meghan, a sophomore at Davidson; Abby, a senior at USC
Dream vacation: Rocky Moutains. “I love to ski but I’m not always able to because of swimming and the fear that I might get hurt.”
Summer hotspot: Cape May. “That’s where my family goes on vacation.”
People might be surprised to know this about you: “I used to play ice hockey and lacrosse. I actually miss hockey but I enjoy swimming more. Whether I played center or defense, I always loved rushing the puck.”