Injury forces Oakland Catholic standout to miss season

Tri-State Sports & News Service

A month from today the WPIAL Class 3A swimming finals will be contested at Pitt’s Trees Pool, only Oakland Catholic senior Sarah Mautino won’t be there.

While competing around Christmas 2015 she tore her right labrum but pushed through the pain and won the 100-yard backstroke and finished third in the 500 freestyle at the WPIAL finals in March. On July 28, she underwent surgery on her shoulder and, because it hasn’t fully recovered, she has not competed this season and won’t hit the pool in a last-ditch effort to get a qualifying time before the championships.

“I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal because the recruiting part is done, but it’s definitely hard to see like [Thursday] night was our senior night and I’m not going to be in that,” Mautino said. “It’s hard to see your hard work almost not pay off. It’s definitely a struggle.”

Mautino swam the 200 and 500 freestyles as a freshman, but switched over to the 100 backstroke her sophomore year and finished second to North Allegheny’s Jacqueline Du in the WPIAL finals with a time of 56.58 seconds. Last year, she touched the wall in 56.06 to beat Mt. Lebanon’s Trinity Ward by 0.24 second to win her first — and as it turns out only — individual title.

After several months of rehab, Mautino is back on her training regimen and swimming again. Though she has been medically cleared to compete, she has opted to err on the side of caution and not make the attempt to rejoin the Oakland Catholic team.

“I considered it but I don’t think I would be in great enough physical shape,” Mautino said. “It’s not really worth the stress of it.”

Though it was, inevitably, her decision to not take that chance and that she’s not competing, Mautino is having difficulty coming to terms with the idea of her team heading to Pitt without her on March 2-3.

“I think seeing someone else hold the 100 back sign and know I didn’t win it and I didn’t lose it, that I didn’t even compete, that would definitely be really hard,” Mautino said. “I don’t know how well they’re doing, but it would be hard one of our relays not going to states because I didn’t compete.”

Despite the fact she missed her senior season, her career is far from over. Mautino committed to swim collegiately at Richmond and should be fully recovered by the start of next season.

“I went to a Catholic school my whole life and I didn’t feel like I would be ready for a really big public school, so I wanted to stay close and fairly small,” Mautino said. “One of my best friends who also swims is there said to come visit, that I’d really like it there and I fell in love with it.”

Upper St. Clair

There are few teams that might challenge North Allegheny and end the Tigers’ eight-year stranglehold on the WPIAL Class 3A girls team title.

Upper St. Clair might be one of them.

Not only do the Panthers return most of their top relay swimmers from a year ago, they also have several key performers who could win WPIAL individual titles next month.

“They’re working really hard and we only have two freshmen, but what’s happening with them is that the ones we have back are improving a lot,” Upper St. Clair coach Dave Schraven said. “I still think North Allegheny is the team to beat, but even though they’re not as dominant as they have been the last few years, they’re still very, very good.”

Among the swimmers who might help Upper St. Clair is junior Abby Matheny, who won the WPIAL title in the 200 freestyle with a 1:51.74 and finished second to Mt. Lebanon’s Abby Hay by 1.37 seconds in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:01.37.

“She’s definitely looking to states to be her best competition,” Schraven said. “She’s really been working hard and we expect her to improve.”