Josh Matheny Moves to #8 in Boys 17-18 100 Breast All-Time Rankings in Carlisle | SwimSwam

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2020 WINTER 18 & UNDER CHAMPIONSHIPS – CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA

• December 10-11, 2020*
• Keystone Aquatic Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2020 Winter 18 & Under Championships”

The meet was originally scheduled to run from Friday through Sunday, but the state of Pennsylvania announced on Thursday new protective orders that halt all youth sports in the state beginning Saturday until January 4.

A three-day meet that was compressed to 2 after Pennsylvania ordered all youth sports within its borders to be halted as of Saturday, there were 4 sessions (2 for boys, 2 for girls) on Friday.

Josh Matheny, after breaking the 17-18 National Age Group Record in the 200-yard breaststroke on Thursday evening, swam two more lifetime bests on Friday.

In the 100 breaststroke, he posted a 52.02. That moves him into a tie with former Duke standout Peter Kropp as the 8th-fastest swimmer in USA Swimming age group history in that event.

Top 10 All-Time, Boys’ 17-18 100 Yard Breaststroke

1. Reece Whitley, 2018 – 51.16
2. Michael Andrew, 2018 – 51.18
3. Kevin Cordes, 2012 – 51.32
4. Max McHugh, 2018 – 51.59
5. Andrew Seliskar, 2015 – 51.78
6. Derek Maas, 2020 – 51.81
7. Kevin Houseman, 2020 – 52.00
8. Josh Matheny, 2020/Peter Kropp, 2014 – 52.02
9. Liam Bell, 2019 – 52.21

Matheny also swam a 1:48.93 in the 200 IM, which is his best time by .54 seconds (incidentally, the exact same margin by which his 100 breaststroke was a best time).

Matheny, who swims for Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics, is committed to swim at Indiana next fall. He’s also a member of the USA Swimming National Team and won the 200 breaststroke at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships.

The swimmer who beat him in that 200 IM was his PEAQ teammate Nico Butera, who also swam a best time of 1:48.73.

Butera was faster than Matheny on 3 of the 4 legs, including by substantial margins in the backstroke and freestyle legs, but Matheny’s specialty of breaststroke made the race competitive. The table below shows how far the race swung on the breaststroke leg.

Comparative Splitting:

	Nico Butera	Josh Matheny	Gap after Leg
Fly	24.4	24.43	.03 (Butera)
Back	27.09	28.39	1.33 (Butera)
Breast	31.99	29.52	1.14 (Matheny)
Free	25.25	26.59	.20 (Butera)
Final Time	1:48.73	1:48.93

In the girls’ sessions, 16-year old Maddie Waggoner swam a best time of 4:50.06 in the girls’ 500 free, beating out her Jersey Wahoos teammate Erin Cavanagh (4:51.92). That is a best time for Waggoner by almost 2 seconds.

Across the meet, Waggoner picked up 3 wins after winning the 200 breaststroke (2:17.32) on Thursday and the 100 breaststroke (1:02.54) later in the day on Friday. She also swam a total of 5 best times: in addition to the three aforementioned races, she swam new personal bests of 56.30 in the 100 back and 1:58.66 in the 200 back. That 200 back time was her biggest drop of 3.08 seconds.

In the boys’ 400 IM, 15-year old Landon D’Ariano from Germantown Academy swam 3:54.64 to win the 400 IM, placing .17 seconds ahead of 18-year old Zach Kohm.

D’Ariano had a breakout meet last weekend that saw him earn his first two Junior Nationals cuts in 1650 free and this same 400 IM. His 3:56.44 from last week was replaced by his 3:54.64 swim on Friday as a new personal best and ranks him as the top 15-year old in the event in the country this season.

D’Ariano this week also swam a best time in the 100 breast (58.74), 100 back (2.01), 200 back (2.04), and 200 breast (2:05.62) to continue his success from last weekend.

For Kohm, that swim was a new best time by over 10 seconds. Including a win in the 500 free on Friday, Kohm dropped time in 5 of his 6 races this weekend, including more than 5 seconds in the 200 fly, almost 5 seconds in the 500 free, and almost a second in the 100 free.

Other Day 2 Girls’ Highlights:

• It was another big day for the Jersey Wahoos girls. After finishing 2nd to her teammate Waggoner in the 500 free, Erin Cavangh came back on a quick turnaround to swim a best time of 2:01.00 and win the 200 IM. In the 2nd girls’ session of the day, she also won the 200 free in 1:49.02, which just-missed her best time by about a tenth of a second.
• 15-year old Cali Oyerly from the hosts Keystone Aquatics won the girls’ 50 free in 23.77, which was her first time under 24 seconds. She was pushed to the wall by high school junior Krista Marlin of the Suburban Seahawks, who swam 23.78. Marlin’s best time coming into the race was 25.51. Much more experienced as a middle distance 200 free/200 back/400 IM swimmer, Marlin’s breakthrough swim in the 50 free will put her on college radars as a sprinter as well.
• The 4th-place finisher in that 50 free, one of 10 swimmers under 24 seconds in a deep field, was 13-year old Sarah Parker in 23.85. That’s the 2nd-fastest time in the country among 13-year olds this season (behind only Alana Berlin of the Schroeder YMCA Swim Team in Wisconsin).
• Mia Abruzzo of Plymouth Whitemarsh Aquatics won the girls’ 400 IM in 4:10.27. For the Georgia commit, who is an Olympic Trials qualifier in that event in long course, the time was a new personal best in yards by almost 3 seconds. Cavanagh finished 2nd in that race in a 4:14.56. One race later, she won the 100 fly in 53.73. 14-year old Georgia Colborn matched her best time with a 54.58 for 2nd place.
• Meghan DiMartile of the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club won the 100 back in 54.32.

Other Day 2 Boys’ Highlights:

• Zach Kohm won the boys’ 500 free in 4:23.50, beating-out 15-year old Henry McFadden, who took 2nd in 4:25.10. Those were big best times for both swimmers: for Kohm, a Georgia commit, the swim was 4.89 seconds better than his previous best, and for McFadden it was 5.32 seconds faster than his previous best.
• For McFadden, his swim was the best time by a 15-year old season by over a second, and was the best time we’ve seen from a swimmer that age since 2018.
• Chris Guiliano got close to the 20-second barrier to win the boys’ 50 free in 20.15, which was his best time by almost four-tenths of a second. He beat out Conner McBeth, who was 2nd in 20.45. McBeth won the 100 free on Thursday, while Guiliano won the 200 free later in the day on Friday in 1:37.02 (McBeth didn’t swim that race).
• Guiliano’s 200 free was a best time by over 2 seconds. Butera was 2nd in that race in 1:38.62, which was not a best time, while McFadden dropped almost 2 seconds to take 3rd place in 1:38.82.
• Ian Shahan from PEAQ won the boys’ 100 fly in 49.62, giving his team their 3rd win of the day.
• In the last swim of the meet, and the last race in the state of Pennsylvania until at least January 4th, Tommy Janton won the boys’ 100 back in 48.23. Janton swam 8 races on the weekend, adding the 100 back to an earlier win in the 200 back (1:44.21). Those 8 races saw 6 new personal best times.

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