In his final season with Penn men’s squash, senior Omar Hafez made his mark in the program history books.
Few Penn athletes have had years as successful as Hafez’s senior season. The senior was already used to success coming into his final season, having led the team to back-to-back national championships in the previous two seasons. He had come to Penn to help the team win, and had certainly already accomplished that feat.
He was undefeated until the team’s first conference matchup at Yale in January, where he fell to Tad Carney. Not even a week later, the Collegiate Squash Association Individual Championships kicked off. After losing to teammate and rising senior Salman Khalil in the final the previous year, Hafez again played his way to the final. This year, he was the last one standing, triumphing over Trinity’s Muhammad Ashab Irfan to capture the individual national title.
In the following weeks, Hafez continued strong in Ivy League play, helping the team to the regular-season and tournament conference titles. With his win on Feb. 15, he broke the program record for most career wins.
Despite Hafez’s wins in the CSA Team Championship, men’s squash fell to Harvard in the semifinals, unable to three-peat the national championship. He finished his collegiate career with a 20-2 season at the top spot on the roster. He also racked up individual awards, including the Ivy League Player of the Year and his third career CSA first team All-American selection.
As Hafez moves on to a professional career post-college, his final season at Penn firmly etched him into the program’s history books.
Honorable mentions: junior forward TJ Power (men's basketball); sophomore Cross Wasilewski (men's wrestling)
Check out the rest of the end-of-year awards for the 2025-26 season here.
