Education
On 8 May 2007, Ongenaet signed a letter of intent to play at. He also had offers from Northwestern, Colorado, Cal-Irvine and Kansas State, and became the sixth recruit in Syracuse"s 2007 class.
Ongenaet would appear in 33 contests in the 2007-2008 season, including starting the final 15 games of the season, with averages of 4.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. His best performance of the season was a 10 point and 11 rebound showing against the Seton Hall Pirates.
Ongenaet began the season as the team"s starting forward, but after the first 11 games, he was relegated to the bench in favor of Rick Jackson.
Ongenaet would later become a key contributor off the bench, including a seven point, 11 rebound effort against Villanova on 22 February 2009 and 12 points and seven rebounds against Seton Hall in the first round of the Big East Tournament on 11 March 2009.
In his final home game against Rutgers on 3 March 2009, he would score 10 points to go along with six rebounds. Ongenaet would finish the season with averages of 3.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.