Marilee is a three-time high school All American and a New York State Champion in the breaststroke. She also was named an Academic All American by NISCA, twice-named a Scholastic All American by USA Swimming, and recognized as an AP Scholar with Honors.

Marilee started swimming competitively at the age of five with the Badger Swim Club led by John Collins. She competed on the Bronxville High School varsity team since the seventh grade, lettering six times, winning three New York State Section One Championships in the breaststroke, and becoming captain her senior year.

Her proudest accomplishment, other than becoming a Yale Bulldog swimmer, was winning the New York State High School Championship as a sophomore. Her most exciting moment in the pool was swimming the breaststroke leg of the Badger medley relay anchored by fellow Badger swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist Jenny Thompson.

Marilee's younger sister and fellow Badger teammate, Erin McGowan Kiernan, is a junior at the Bronxville High School where she swims butterfly on the Varsity Swim Team. Her grandmother and namesake, Marilee Stepan Wehman, medaled in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, and her great grandmother, Mary Louise Therese Quinn Stepan, was a US National Champion in 1929.

As a freshman at Branford College, Marilee had a strong start to her college career capturing a first or a second place in the breaststroke events at every duel meet, a third at HYP, and a fifth at the Ivy League Championships. She is most proud of being part of the medley relay team that broke the Yale record and finished third at Ivies.

Marilee chose to come to Yale for the unrivaled quality of its undergraduate education, the overwhelming sense of community within the residential colleges, and the daunting challenge to make a contribution to the record of 35 undefeated seasons, ten Ivy championships, four national championships, and 27 Olympic medals that constitutes the tradition of Yale Swimming.