Bio

In the 34-year history of the WIAC Cross Country Championship, only one woman has run to three individual titles. That person is Tiffany (Speckman) Ebensperger, who also led UW-Oshkosh to six national championships and 10 conference titles in cross country and track & field from 1994-98.

Speckman’s senior year, the 1997-98 campaign, was an outstanding one. In the fall, she captured her third WIAC cross country title with a time of 18:01. Speckman was named the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and UW-Oshkosh earned its fourth straight WIAC championship. The Titans placed fourth at the NCAA Division III Championship as Speckman won the individual crown with a time of 18:29. Laura Horejs (1991) is the only other person in UW-Oshkosh history with a national cross country title.

When the indoor track & field season came around in 1998, Speckman led UW-Oshkosh to the WIAC championship with individual titles in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. She also won both of those events at the WIAC outdoor meet. At the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship, Speckman was victorious in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:16. She nearly gained two more national titles when she finished second in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs at the outdoor competition.

Speckman received the 1998 Honda NCAA Division III Woman Athlete of the Year Award, becoming the first winner from the WIAC. She was also a three-time selection to the Successful Farming All-American Team. Speckman’s national awards contributed $6,000 to UW-Oshkosh’s general academic scholarship fund.

In cross country, Speckman was part of four WIAC championship teams. In three of those years (1994, 1996, 1997), she won the individual conference title and earned NCAA Division III All-America status. UW-Oshkosh also took the team crown at the 1996 national championship.

UW-Oshkosh captured NCAA Division III indoor track & field titles in 1995 and 1996. Speckman helped the Titans to WIAC indoor crowns in 1995, 1996 and 1998, while also winning the 3,000-meter run in 1995.

Outdoors, Speckman achieved a three-peat (1996-98) in the 3,000-meter run at the WIAC Track & Field Championship. The Titans then won the WIAC title and the NCAA championship from 1995-97.

Speckman, a four-time Academic All-American by the CoSIDA, was named to both the WIAC Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field All-Centennial Teams in 2012. She was inducted into the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005.

The Juda High School graduate still races competitively and has completed 13 marathons. At the 2012 Boston Marathon, she finished in 3:24:29 to lead all women from Wisconsin.

Speckman graduated from UW-Oshkosh in 1998 and is currently a science teacher at Albany High School. She lives in Juda with her devoted husband, Eric Ebensperger.