Student Athlete of the Week Rocco Culpepper

Only a junior, Rocco Culpepper already owns one of the more impressive cross country-track and field resumes among prep runners in Colorado.

The Niwot High School standout finished third in last year's Class 4A cross country state championships and is now poised to make a run at the 5A title in 2024. At the Region 3 meet on Oct. 24, Culpepper blew through the field on a windy afternoon in Broomfield, taking first at 15 minutes, 50.4 seconds.

"The first mile felt pretty steady, it was a big group of guys," Culpepper said of his start at Broomfield County Commons Park. "The first two miles are pretty similar, everyone grinded it to see who was gonna be there for the last mile. That big hill in the last mile, it was a grind between a lot of boys."

Coming off the hill, Culpepper crossed the finish line 0.63 seconds ahead of NHS teammate Ryder Keeton. Within the next 20 seconds, six consecutive Niwot runners followed Culpepper and Keeton across the finish line.

The Cougars will face a greater challenge on Saturday, Nov. 2, when they travel to the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs for the Class 5A state championships. Culpepper was the highest-placing Niwot runner at last year's 4A meet, and he hopes to put on another show in his 5A state debut.

"The biggest thing as a team is trying to get as many guys as high up as we can and get the shortest team score as we possibly can," Culpepper said. "Individually, I (want to) run to the best of my abilities and try to get as high of a place as I can."

Fortunately for Culpepper, he's surrounded by experienced runners at practice and in his own home. His older brother, Cruz, was a two-time cross country state champion at Niwot (class of 2020) who later ran at the University of Washington. His parents, Alan and Shayne Culpepper, are each two-time United States Olympians in track and field.

"It's pretty awesome," Rocco Culpepper said. "If you ever have a question, you know you're gonna get the right answer. It's always inspiring to look up to them and try to be like how they were."

During his sophomore track and field season, Culpepper won two individual 4A state titles - 800 and 1,600-meter - and anchored Niwot's first-place 4x800 relay team.