Former Blue Jays shine at NSIC outdoor championships

A Blue Jay legacy on a bigger stage

Former Jamestown High School standouts did more than just show up at the 2026 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Outdoor Championships in Duluth. They carried a piece of Jamestown with them, and the results made that hometown connection easy to see.

The meet ran May 7-9 at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Malosky Stadium, putting Jamestown alumni into one of Division II track and field’s most demanding conference settings. The NSIC is a 16-team, 18-sport NCAA Division II league spanning Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, which means every point came against a deep and familiar regional field.

Jamestown’s reach in the conference field

The former Blue Jays competing in Duluth included Bernadette Belzer, Julia Skari, Yolanda Nabwe, Allysah Larson and Hunter Petersen, along with Renea Taylor, Drew Salfrank, Carter Dingman, Geoffrey Mannino and Drew Henriksen. That list alone says plenty about the strength of Jamestown’s track pipeline: the school is not sending out one or two isolated runners, but a cluster of athletes who continue to turn up at the next level.

That continued presence matters in a place like Stutsman County because track and field is still one of the clearest ways Jamestown measures itself. The Blue Jays remain a visible part of local spring sports coverage, with state-qualifying and state-meet storylines still driving attention around Jamestown High School. NDHSAA’s profile of the school lists the Blue Jays nickname and includes boys’ and girls’ track and field among its sponsored activities, reinforcing how central the sport remains to the community identity.

Skari’s freshman season already looks like a fit

Julia Skari, now a freshman at Northern State, gave Jamestown fans one of the strongest individual proof points of the meet. She said her first collegiate season could not have gone much better, pointing to personal records in the 100 hurdles and 400 hurdles and to the team atmosphere around her.

Her contribution went beyond the hurdles. Northern State’s meet recap showed Skari running on the women’s 4x100 relay that placed sixth in 47.55 and on the 4x400 relay that finished eighth in 4:02.40. Those relay marks matter because they show she is not just adapting to college competition in one event, but contributing in multiple areas for a women’s program that finished fourth in the team standings with 66 points.

For Jamestown readers, Skari’s first-year impact fits a familiar pattern. The Blue Jays have long been built on athletes who learn to race hard, race together and trust the work in practice. Skari’s role at Northern State suggests that foundation is traveling well.

Belzer turns prelim pressure into a top-six finish

Bernadette Belzer, a Jamestown High School Class of 2023 graduate, delivered another strong hometown result. She had to fight through the preliminaries in the 400 hurdles before rebounding to finish sixth with an all-time personal best of 1:02.11. That kind of response is the difference between surviving a conference meet and leaving a mark on it.

Belzer also spoke to the value of seeing former teammates competing at the same level, especially when those names still feel close to home in Jamestown. That shared background is part of what makes this story resonate locally. Even in college uniforms, the athletes are still tied together by the same lanes, same coaches and same small-town expectations that shaped them at Jamestown High School.

Northern State’s women also got solid relay work around Belzer’s performance. The Wolves’ 4x100 took sixth in 47.55, and the 4x400 took eighth in 4:02.40, helping anchor the team’s fourth-place finish. Those placements underline that Belzer was not isolated in her success. She was part of a program depth chart that held up across the weekend.

The numbers show a deep regional standard

The team scores give the meet its broader context. Northern State’s women finished fourth with 66 points, while Jamestown’s women placed ninth with 35 points and Jamestown’s men finished ninth with 24 points. Those standings point to a conference that is crowded with capable programs and enough North Dakota representation to keep the region’s track culture tightly connected.

That matters for Jamestown because the city’s athletes are not disappearing into a distant national scene. They are competing against nearby schools, familiar rivals and conference peers who know the same weather, the same travel grind and often the same recruiting footprint. When a former Blue Jay earns a personal best or helps a relay place, it reflects directly back on the local program that built the base.

The results also fit into Northern State’s broader season momentum. The Wolves’ women went on to use that fourth-place finish as part of an NCAA Division II postseason push, while the men finished second at the conference meet. That team success gives extra weight to Skari’s and Belzer’s contributions, because their performances were part of a program operating at a high level on both sides.

What Jamestown can take from this run

The most important part of the Duluth story is not just who finished where. It is what these results say about Jamestown’s track culture and the athletes coming out of it. When former Blue Jays like Skari, Belzer, Nabwe, Larson and Petersen are still showing up in conference championship fields, it tells younger runners that the path from Jamestown to college competition is real and repeatable.

It also gives local families a clear example of what the next level demands: consistency, relay teamwork, and the ability to bounce back after a rough prelim or a crowded field. That is the kind of lesson Jamestown knows well. The Blue Jays have always valued athletes who compete hard, support teammates and carry the name forward with pride.

For Stutsman County, the takeaway is simple. Jamestown’s track program is not just producing results at home. It is producing runners who can step onto a conference stage in Duluth and still look unmistakably like Blue Jays.