Mara Ellerkamp '24 Recruiting Profile

I began swimming when I was five years old and have been swimming for the Dickinson Dolphins Swim Team my whole club career.  I also swim for my high school team, the Dickinson Midgets. I started swimming for the high school team as a seventh-grader and qualified my first year for the high school team in the 200 free and 500 free making the top 16 in the 500.  In my 8th-grade year, I made all-conference and all-state taking the top  16 in 200 free and top 8 in the 500 free.  In my freshman year, I made all-conference and took the top 16 in the 200 and 500 free.  In my club season I do more long distance events swimming the 1650, 1000, and 400 IM.

As soon as I started swimming when I was 5 I fell in love with the sport and couldn’t get enough of it. I tried other sports but no other sport taught me as much as swimming taught me. Swimming has taught me how to work hard and have fun with it at the same time. Swimming has taught me to keep my head high in adversity and never give up.I am highly competitive in anything I do and love to be pushed by someone better than me.  Swimming has helped me become the person I am today.  When I am not swimming you could usually find me doing something else active. My ultimate goal is to contribute to a college swim team in the future.