It’s been quite the season for Omar Ebied, as the Swarthmore College sophomore has gone from being denied a walk-on spot in the fall of 2021 to being the team’s top performer in multiple events.
Ebied, a native of Woodside, N.Y., who previously trained with teams including the Laguardia Aquatic Club and Queens (QNS) Aquatic Club, sought out a walk-on spot with the Division III school prior to his freshman year, 2021-22, but was turned down.
After training all summer, the team brought him on as a walk-on this past fall, and the results have been incredibly impressive.
Ebied, who did not compete from March 2021 until October 2022, had a strong showing at the Gettysburg Invitational at the beginning of December, reeling off best times in three events, and this past weekend at the Swarthmore Invitational, he really broke through.
Ebied reset Swarthmore’s pool record in the men’s 400 IM, bringing his PB down from 4:15.28 (February 2020) to 4:09.35 to lower the previous mark of 4:10.17 established by Tommy Ronayne in December 2019.
Ebied’s swim also moved him into ninth all-time in Swarthmore history, and makes him the team’s fastest swimmer this season by more than three seconds.
He also dropped two seconds in the 200 IM to take over ninth in school history at 1:55.48, making him the top Swarthmore swimmer this season by more than a second.
These performances earned him the Centennial Conference Swimmer of the Week honors.
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Despite Ebied establishing himself as one of the team’s top performers this season, unless someone pulls out due to illness or injury, he will not travel to the Centennial Championships later this month.
Coming into the meet last weekend, there was one remaining spot on the 18-man roster for the conference championships, and Benton Greenberg was ultimately selected over Ebied due to his relay value.
“As a sophomore walk-on to the Swat Swim family, I knew I had to work incredibly hard both in and out of season in order to earn a spot on the conference team,” Ebied told SwimSwam.
Ebied said he has zero animosity about the decision and simply wants his team to do whatever it takes to maximize its scoring potential.
“We are both incredibly proud of our performance this past weekend and know that we would both score in our three individual events at conferences,” Ebied said of Greenberg.
“While I am a bit disappointed that I will not be going, I am incredibly proud of Benton and fully support the decision. I trust my coaches made the correct decision as it would maximize the number of points our team scores, thus increasing our chances of success.”
There are two Swarthmore swimmers who own best times faster than what Ebied went last weekend in the 400 IM—Jacob Sherman and Ham Williams-Tracy, who were both in the 4:05 range last year.
At the 2022 championships, Ebied’s time would’ve made the ‘A’ final (sixth in prelims), while his 200 IM clocking would slot him comfortably into the consolation final.
Ebied also recorded a PB of 2:10.35 in the 200 breast over the weekend, good for second on Swarthmore this season.
Despite the setback of not having the opportunity to race at the last big competition of the season, Ebied has said he is determined to break the school record in the 400 IM by the time his collegiate career is over. The record currently stands at 4:00.58, set by the now-graduated Dylan Torrance last season.
“After pausing my swim career back in 2020, I came back to training this past summer with my club coach (Jonah Montgomery from the QNS Aquatic Club), who was a tremendous motivator and help getting me back in shape,” Ebied said.
“At the end of the day, I am extremely pleased with how my season came to a close. Considering I was not granted a spot on the swim team last year, I have come a long way in earning my spot on the Swat Swim family and proving myself in the pool. I am forever grateful for even being on the team this year.”
Swarthmore College is a Division III school and the men’s and women’s swim teams are both the reigning Centennial Conference champions.
Their coach is absolutely tripping–I don’t care if he tapered for this meet, the kid can be in or around that time that leads his team. At a minimum he will be the second or maybe third best kid on the team in his event and there is no way that isn’t valuable enough to be in your team’s top 18
That’s just not how conference scoring works though. Doesn’t matter if you’re 2nd or 3rd in your event at the end of the day. It’s about points for the team–relays and every other team gets factored in. Also, should someone who earned their spot on the conference team during the season when this athlete had the same opportunity not get a championship meet? Coaches make mistakes on scoring rosters every single year at every school, especially with fast rising first or second year walk ons. It’s part of the sport. This athlete just got an article about it.
Gotta consider the 18 kids who were told they had a spot at conference. If this kid then takes a place, one of those 18 doesn’t get an end of season meet. So – maybe from a win at all costs perspective it would make sense, but someone gets the raw end of the deal either way.
I heard they be trippin’ as well as… and they be whippin’ too … but it truly does depend on the source
I swam D3 and don’t remember my coach leaving anyone off the roster for conference championships. Maybe we didn’t have enough swimmers? I don’t know, it seems odd. Hopefully, he gets a shot next year. Glad he seems to have a great attitude regarding the situation.
18 swimmers allowed.
I swam D1… we had more than 18 athletes, but we were able to bring everyone. 18 would score, and the remaining “x” would not count toward the overall team score. They could swim in finals, but they would swim in a separate C heat. I guess it all depends on your conference, but I would imagine a school without much funding may be forced to limit who travels as well. Hotel rooms, tech suits, food, etc… costs more and more for each athlete you bring.
I called it 18 athletes because divers actually count as 1/3 a swimmer at conference meets. Generally, you will see a team bring 17 swimmers and 3 divers.
Each conference has slightly different rules. There’s no standardization within a division, let alone across divisions.
Makes sense. I’d like to see a conference attempt to score everyone. You’re already limited by the number of scholarships you can offer your athletes, so, naturally, your team will only get so large. If a program can still attract top-tier talent who may not be on scholarship, then I think that should be encouraged.
The brain-trust generally opposes this. The idea is that if you let, say, an Indiana score everyone, then Illinois doesn’t score, and their AD cuts the program. That’s why you saw the Big Ten reduce scorers, but let teams still bring extra swimmers as exhibitions. Still gets you a lot of taper swims at the championship meet, but increases the number of scorers for Iowa, Illinois, Rutgers, etc.
Most big college sports made moves in their history to increase parity across programs. College football and basketball got bigger and better when rules were put in place that made it harder for schools like Alabama to stash All-Americans on their bench, just to keep other teams from having them.
We talked… Read more »
Wow. I had not really thought of it like that, and I definitely think you are right.
To add, capping athletes at, let’s say 18, creates a level of strategy that otherwise doesn’t really exist for college swimming. One could maybe compare it to drawing up a play in basketball or football:
There’s a bit of pressure on the coach to bring the best 18 swimmers who can contribute individually and on relays, but, ultimately, the pressure lies on the athlete to deliver. A basketball coach will draw up plays, but he relies heavily on the players to execute OKLAHOMA BLUE 45 effectively.
Yeah I like that angle of it.
Every year we see kids qualify for NCAAs without being on their conference roster, which to me gives championship season some extra richness. Nyah Funderburke at Ohio State was a great example last year.
Team’s top performer in multiple events, yet left off the 18-man roster for a conference meet?!
Tell me the coaches don’t know what they’re doing without telling me the coaches don’t know what they’re doing…
It seems likely that this athlete tapered, dropped more time than expected, and is now the fastest swimmer on the team in certain events in advance of other athletes, who have previously gone faster in prior years, having the chances to contest those events while tapered.
Especially at a meet where B relays score points, relay value extends a lot further down the roster than normal. More sprinters of the free and stroke variety are required in order to score across all 5 relays, and as such it’s possible a mid-d or distance athlete gets squeezed. If said athlete tapers first and drops nice times, it looks bad at first glance, but the coaches could very well be making the… Read more »
He doesn’t know about the Swat taper…
Those coaches know what they’re doing.
Swarthmore’s end of season drops tend to be pretty drastic. The school record holder in the 4IM was 4:19 at midseason last year before going 4:00 at conference champs…
Chachi. They don’t know what they are doing. I am so, so, sorry
Wow. Great story – I’ll be rooting for him to set that school record
What does “walk-on” mean for a division III team? There aren’t scholarships so that isn’t the criteria. And it sound like he was recruited so that wouldn’t be the criteria either.
This isn’t an important question- I just thought that part of the article sounded strange.
D3 teams are more limited in resources, coaching staff, and (usually) pool space. Plus all swimmers on a team need to be good enough to handle the workouts and make intervals. A quick look at his previous PBs indicate he might not have been able to do that before this year.
The term doesn’t always have an exact definition used consistently. Some people use it for anyone that’s not on athletic scholarship, but I think that’s way too broad — and as you note, it would refer to ALL d3 swimmers. A true “walk-on” is a kid that shows up at the coach’s door in August and asks to try out for the team. Some people talk about “recruited walk-on” or “preferred walk-ons” — those kids typically came to the school knowing they already had a roster spot. To me – that’s not a walk-on. And there are many many swimmers that fall into the no-scholarship category. It seems like Omar qualifies as a “walk-on” b/c in 2021 he sought a… Read more »
He wasn’t recruited.
Most d3 swimmers on the teams are recruited, the coach knows they will be on the team well ahead of the start of the year.
Walks on show up on campus/ maybe email the coach and ask to join.
If the school has a roster limit they may decline (this case). Also if someone can’t meet the practice demands they may be denied.
Thanks for the explanations. I was just curious. Based on this my D3 college team (many decades ago) was mostly walk-ons . 🙂
I guess I was a walk on. Showed up at my D3 school in fall of 85. Never spoke to the coach but knew I had times to qualify for Nats. I thought most of our team was like that
Omar is the type of swimmer any coach would want in their pool. I heard he owes all this success to his older brother… 😉
Omar is an awesome kid. Swam against him growing up and have nothing but good things to say. So happy to see him succeeding.
Excellent attitude. Sorry he won’t get to swim with this teammates at the conference championships. This should motivate him for an excellent junior year. Impressive young man, he will be a success in life.
Excellent attitude, and also stresses the importance of value to a college team. It doesn’t appear to be IM racers. Elizabeth Beisel has been quoted that she never got to swim relays.