Shayne Wille Culpepper (2024) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame

Shayne Wille Culpepper

Induction:
2024
Class:
1997

Shayne Wille (Culpepper) originally was a walk-on in the CU track program, joining the team in the fall of 1995; just seven months later, she was an All-American in the 3,000-meter run to conclude her first indoor season with the Buffs (and four years later was an Olympian) … CU’s Female Athlete of the Year for all sports in 1996-97 … Overall, she won five Big Eight or Big 12 Conference titles and was a four-time All American … In less than a month’s span her senior year (May-June 1997), she claimed the Big 12 title in the 1,500-meters by over five seconds (4:16.66 time in humid Waco), and finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, clocking a 9:06.86 time in the 3,000-meter run … Less than a week after that performance, at the USA Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis, she was the only collegian to advance into the finals in the 1,500-meters, her time of 4:10.16 was the fastest college time in the nation and would be a CU record for 10 years; that was good for third in her heat and she went on to finish sixth in the finals in a 4:12.69 time … She signed as a professional shortly thereafter and would compete for the next decade nationally and internationally … A two-time U.S. Summer Olympic team member, in 2000 at Sydney (1,500-meter run) and in 2004 at Athens (5,000-meter run) … A five-time national champion: 2003 U.S. Cross Country 4k, 2004 Olympic Trials (5,000), 2004 and 2005 U.S. Indoor 3,000 and 2007 U.S. Indoor Mile … Won the bronze medal in the 2004 World Indoor Championships (Budapest, Hungary) in the 3,000-meter run, in the 2005 event, helped the U.S. to the team bronze medal … Owns personal records of 2:02.1 (800-meter run), 4:05.9 (1,500-meter run), 8:54.8 (3,000-meter run) and 15:01.2 (5,000-meter run) … Transferred to CU after one year at the University of Vermont and graduated with a degree in Political Science … She spent the majority of her childhood in Havertown, Pa., where she started her athletic journey as a competitive gymnast … She discovered a talent for running in high school and earned an athletic scholarship to UVM, but soon heard Boulder calling her “home” (she was born Dec. 3, 1973 in Atlanta, Ga., but her family moved to Boulder, where she spent the first six years of her life; both parents were CU graduates and she spent a lot of time “running around Family Housing”) … The mother of four boys between the ages of 12 and 22 (Cruz, Levi, Rocco and Chase), she is married to CU alum Alan Culpepper (who won the ’03 U.S. XC title the same day she won the women’s crown); he was inducted into CU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012 (and they are the first married couple to be inducted come this fall) … She was inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame in 2010 … She currently is (and has been) on the counseling staff at Boulder’s Fairview High School.