Sports Update

“With hard work, it’s possible to achieve great things.” This simple yet sage idiom is from Antoine Destang ’25, one of the fastest 14-year-old swimmers in the country. A typical school day for the Grade 9 student begins at 4:15 a.m. to allow him to start training with the Etobicoke Swim Club in west Toronto at 5:15 a.m. “I can’t be late because I won’t be allowed to train, so I have to hustle and get to the Etobicoke Olympium on time,” says Antoine. Antoine swims for two hours, then eats breakfast in the car as his mom drives him to St. Andrew’s for class at 8:40 a.m. Antoine maintains an A+ academic average, enjoys lunch with friends in Cole Hall, and loves learning about how things work in science class. After school, his mom takes him back to the Olympium, where he swims for another two hours, followed by an hour of dryland training. He rounds out his daily routine by spending time with family, playing video games with friends, completing his homework, and practicing the clarinet. Antoine’s affinity for science and how things work is evident in how he keeps track of his weekly totals. “I swim 18.5 hours, plus three hours of gym/dryland each week with my club, and about an hour of strength and conditioning once a week.” In December, Antoine competed at the Ontario Junior Internationals at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre in east Toronto. “Antoine was the youngest swimmer in his events and was racing against 18-year-olds,” says Christine Harris, Head Coach of the SAC Aquatic program. He set a U14 Canadian record in the 100m butterfly and two U14 Ontario records in 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle. At the time, he was the only 13-year-old to qualify for the meet, which is open to the top U18 swimmers in Ontario. Despite being the youngest swimmer at the event, Antoine didn’t let the pressure get to him. When asked if he was happy with the results, he replied, “Yes, but I have more to accomplish. I can go faster and improve in other races as well.” He also finds the time to compete on the SAC Swim team, where teammates perform a similar balancing act between club and school training. “Having other club swimmers on the team is comforting because we share the competitive swimming experience,” says Efstathios Mouratidis ’22, a senior swimmer on the SAC team. This season at SAC, Antoine has come close to beating a couple of school records that have stood the test of time, and in March, the team won the CISAA Championship for the first time in more than ten years. “It’s great to break long-standing records because it shows how swimming continues to progress,” he says. Antoine followed that up with recognition as Swim Ontario’s Athlete of the Month for March 2022 and seems laser-focused on reaching his ultimate goal of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France. For Antoine, the hard work is there, and great things are most certainly on the way.

the shape of water

Swimming fast and breaking records

Pre- and post-race: Antoine gets ready to compete and the CISAA Championships in March at the Markham Pan Am Pool. After the races, Antoine relaxes with his hardware.

THE COMMITMENTS

Owen Bradbury ’22 Ronan Woodroffe ’22 Adam Mallalieu ’22

Matthew Morden ’22 Riley Knox ’22 Ali Gharib ’22 Kyle Murphy ’22 Luke Devlin ’22

Matthew Morden ’22 Luke Devlin ’22 Eli Sebastian ’22

WHO’S GOING WHERE?

1ST FOOTBALL

Kyle Murphy ’22 – University of Toronto Gavin Owen ’22 – University of British Columbia

1ST SOCCER

Owen Bradbury ’22 – Carleton University Ali Gharib ’22 – University of Dayton Adam Mallalieu ’22 – Washington University in St. Louis Ronan Woodroffe ’22 – University of British Columbia

1ST HOCKEY

Luke Devlin ’22 – Cornell University Matthew Morden ’22 – Harvard University Eli Sebastian ’22 – Northeastern University Aydar Suniev ’22 – University of Massachusetts

1ST LACROSSE

Riley Knox ’22 – Mercer University

* greyed out - not in photo