Ethan Dangel '24 Recruiting Profile

I was introduced to track in 7th grade and fell in love with the sport instantly. I love how it blends both individual and team success. Challenging myself to achieve a new PR while working with my teammates to improve as a group is what originally attracted me to the sport and continues to motivate me today. As a thrower, I always itch for one more inch, a little bit more rotation, a harder drive, and better execution. As a teammate, I want to make the maximum contribution to my team’s success and support my teammates to achieve their goals. 

One of the most gratifying moments in my career was early in my sophomore year. My team needed someone to compete in place of one of my teammates who had sprained his ankle. I volunteered even though I had never run that specific event before. I ended up placing in the event and earned the highest number of points at the meet. I can still remember the faces of my teammates when I finished.  It was a great feeling.

In addition to track, I also play hockey and soccer. These team sports have helped me learn how to build relationships with my peers and communicate effectively. I pride myself on my ability to communicate. Our throwing coach is not able to make all the practices and I’m often put in charge of teaching new throwers and being a line of communication between my coach and my peers. This gives me the opportunity to practice leadership and build strong relationships and trust with my teammates and my coaches.

My school prides itself on teaching students how to learn through project-based learning and an emphasis on critical thinking. I’m told that critical thinking is a strength of mine. In school, I am always analyzing, synthesizing, and using information that I gather from the world around me. This learning to learn attitude has helped me in track as well. Instead of simply copying and repeating the form, I try to understand the form more than anything, and evolve it to be my own. I hope this approach will allow me to continue to improve at the same accelerated pace I have been my whole career and eventually allow me to compete in college.