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Coming to New York all the way the Saint Felix School in Southwold, England, Marin de Villard has announced his decision to swim and study at Canisius College beginning this fall. De Villard began his swimming career while living in Tanzania before making the move to England at the age of twelve to continue his swimming career.
While de Villard trains in England, he traveled to France to compete in the 2023 French Swimming and Diving Junior Championships earlier this year. His top finish at the meet came in the 100 back, where he touched in 58.05 in the 100 back to take eighth. He also took eighteenth in the 200 free (1:55.99) and tenth in the 200 back (2:08.01).
Top LCM Times (and SCY Conversion)
- 50 free – 25.06 (21.85)
- 100 free – 53.01 (46.49)
- 200 free – 1:55.99 (1:41.61)
- 100 back – 57.83 (51.01)
- 200 back – 2:07.25 (1:52.47)
de Villard will be a huge addition to the Canisius program this fall, with times that already rank him among the team’s best swimmers from last season. With his converted times, he would have led the team in the 200 back last year by over three seconds and would have been the teams second fastest performer in the 100 free, 200 free, and 100 back.
As a team, Canisius finished in fifth out of eight teams at the 2023 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Swimming and Diving Championships. The team was led by sophomore Archie Minto, who finished the meet as the conference champion in both butterfly events and took silver in the 200 IM. With his converted times, de Villard would have been a B-finalist at the meet in the 100 free, 200 free, 100 back, and 200 back.
de Villard will join a Canisius program that already has multiple athletes originally from England. Minto hails from Burley in Wharfedale, England while Samuel Vidal, who was nominated for Canisius’s Male Rookie of the Year award, is from Montpellier, France.
As a team, the Canisius men have been on the rise in recent years. At the 2023 MAAC Championships, the program’s freshman and sophomores combined to score 211 of the team’s 337 total points.
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Canisius are on the rise watch out