By Claire Wong on SwimSwam
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Irvine Novaquatics’ Grant O’Mara, a distance freestyle specialist, has announced that he will start donning Duke Blue in the fall of 2027. The San Marino, California native, a Summer Junior National qualifier, posted the following statement on Instagram:
I’m super excited to announce my commitment to continue my swimming and academic career at Duke University. Thank you to my family and teammates for always supporting me throughout my journey. A special thank you to Coaches Ken and John for building me into the athlete I am today, as well as Coaches Brian and Daniel for this incredible opportunity. GO BLUE DEVILS !!
O’Mara had a major breakout meet at the 2025 Winter Junior Championships in December, setting best times in all of his top events. He posted a 4:25.39 in prelims of the 500 free — the fastest he’d ever been by over 6 seconds. That swim qualified him for the B-final, where he finished 16th in 4:28.80, a time good enough for the 2nd fastest of his career.
His 500 wasn’t an enigma however, as he had similar drops in the 1000 and 1650 frees. In the former, he dropped 11 seconds (9:19.83) to finish 36th, and in the latter, he shaved 19 seconds off his PB to finish 31st. His time of 15:39.01 marked just his 2nd time under the 16 minute barrier, a feat he accomplished for the first time this season. O’Mara also contributed to Irvine Novaquatics’ 10th place 800 free relay with a split of 1:40.04.
The San Marino High School junior has a knack for hitting his best performances at the biannual Junior National meets, as his long course PBs come from the 2025 Summer Jr Championships. There, he posted times of 8:26.94 in the 800 and 16:09.19 in the 1500, swims that marked best times by 6 seconds and 34 seconds, respectively.
Like many California natives, O’Mara swims open water races. A few weeks ago, he competed at the USA Swimming Open Water Nationals 10k, in Sarasota, FL and placed 45th overall.
O’Mara is also a CIF Southern Section Division 1 finalist, as he wrapped up his sophomore year campaign with a 7th place finish in the 500 free. This year, that meet will take place from May 5 – 9, while the California High School state finals will be held from May 15 -17.
Best times SCY:
200 free: 1:40.93 500 free: 4:25.39 1000 free: 9:19.83 1650 free: 15:39.01 400 IM: 4:05.37The Duke men took 14th in a field of 15 teams at ACCs this year, finishing ahead of only Boston College. They were led by Justin Wong‘s 7 individual points, earned via his 18th place finish in the 200 fly. While O’Mara’s times aren’t quite fast enough to score at the ACC Championships, he will still be a valuable addition to the team: his 200/500/1650 would have ranked him 13th/4th/4th on the Blue Devils’ roster last season.
Along with O’Mara, Duke’s class of 2031 will include fellow Californian Rostik Khilko and New Yorker Jonathan Packles. Khilko is a 55.0/2:00.0 breaststroker while Packles is a 47.9/1:44.0 backstroker. Duke’s class of 2030 welcomes a distance swimmer of similar caliber to O’Mara, as Sam Hennenfent has PBs of 4:28.33/9:12.38/15:15.11 across the freestyle events.
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