Kelsie Belquist poses in her new SheSports gear. (Submitted photo)
Kelsie Belquist sat out her entire senior track season with a torn ACL.
A year after breaking state records and making it to nationals, she wasn’t able to compete in her final spring at New Rockford-Sheyenne High School.
“Going from being at the top to being on the sidelines was not easy at all,” Belquist said. “But it also made me take a step back and realize sports isn’t just about winning and being first. … I kind of learned how to control my confidence and how to be a better team player, and how to be a supportive player. ”
Now in her second year of college, it’s like she never had a setback.
Belquist, a sophomore on the University of Nebraska track and field team, has already set the second-best 200-meter time in Huskers program history and the third-best 400 time. She competed in the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor Championships as a freshman. She has aspirations of becoming a national champion and eventually making it to the Olympics.
She went through a difficult time. And she made it out the other side.
That’s why Belquist has decided to give back to younger athletes through the SheSports app, where she offers tips on confidence and training to the next generation.
“I think it is already helping me become just a better person in general,” said Belquist, who announced the partnership on March 3. “I like to hear stories about people. And it’s hard to hear how people are struggling in school and sports. But it also is very heartwarming to know that I can step in and help them because I’ve been through a lot of the same things. So I love that part about it.”
Blossoming on the track in high school
Kelsie’s father, Elliott, stresses that his kids play a variety of sports.
“We want them to be in everything,” he said. “We live in small towns and communities, and we need players to be in everything if we want to be good at stuff. So that’s what we stress. We don’t want to focus in one sport; I think that leads to a lot of injuries.”
In high school, Kelsie played volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and ran track in the spring.
She didn’t always know her future would lie on the track.
“I think before my junior year, I didn’t love the fact that I had to run so many meters and run at practice,” she said.
Elliott recalled that volleyball was Kelsie’s “first love.” She had plenty of success in the sport — she helped NR-S make it to state in 2022 and 2023. She was the 2023 Class B Senior of the Athlete of the Year.
But on the track, she was dominant. She first made it to the North Dakota state track meet as a seventh-grader. She was winning state championships by the time she was a freshman.
“Volleyball is a very fun sport; I also realized I like individual-based sports,” Kelsie said. “I liked where it was me that was controlling what was happening. But there is still team aspects, which I enjoy about track. But I think what I liked the best was where I could control the outcome of things. And what the outcome was, was my fault, or on me.”
Whatever Kelsie competed in, Elliott always knew she was going to give it her best shot.
“She obviously is genetically gifted, I guess, with some of the times she ran, but she’s an ultimate competitor,” Elliott said. “And that’s the biggest thing I saw with her early on, is it didn’t matter if you were playing a game in Phy. Ed. or playing a game of cards. She always wanted to win, and she never wanted to sit around in Phy. Ed. class or anything like that. She was always wanting to compete. And it didn’t matter if it was with the boys; she just liked to get after it.”
Elliott, a three-time state champion coaching football, was also the Rockets’ baseball coach from 2006 to 2020. When the previous track coach retired, Elliott had been getting into the Speed and Acceleration program he runs in New Rockford.
With his son Bo graduating in 2020, he decided to transition to coaching track in the spring.
“When the opportunity came, I knew I was going to be chasing them around in track, and I decided I wanted to try something different and try the track thing,” Elliott said. “I wanted to be around them and train them more.”
Elliott became the NR-S track coach while Kelsie was a freshman.
As a sophomore in 2022, Kelsie won state championships in two sprinting events — the 200-meter and 400-meter — and two hurdles events — the 100-meter and 300-meter.
Her 300-meter hurdle time was down to 42.02. Anything around the 42s, Elliott explained, met the standard of Division-I recruiters.
“Times in North Dakota are so tough because one, the weather, and two, we’ve got them competing in so many events, unlike maybe other states,” Elliott said. “Places where they have more kids, they’re more specialized in things.”
Kelsie won all four events again as a junior, setting personal bests in each one at the state track meet. Her 200-meter dash and 300-meter hurdle times were overall state records, while her 400-meter mark was a Class B state record.
“I think I just gained a lot of confidence and belief in myself,” Kelsie said. “And by my junior year, I was like, ‘Okay, I know I can grow tremendously in this sport, and I am really starting to love it.’”
She clocked in at 41.48 in the 300-meter hurdles. It was not only the best mark in North Dakota, but the 10th-best in the nation. She made it to the Nike Outdoor Nationals at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., where she finished eighth in the 100-meter hurdles and top-20 in two other events.
That’s when the phone calls started flooding in.
“And then we got the idea that yeah, she could go to some bigger schools,” Elliott said.
By this time, Bo Belquist had established himself as a star wide receiver on the UND football team. While Kelsie was breaking track records as a high school junior, Bo was ranked No. 25 nationally in receptions per game as a college senior.
“She gives credit a lot to Bo, I think,” said Elliott, who played football for NDSU. “Just the hard work that he put into it, and seeing the success that he had, I think really fueled her to want to do it and want to push and believe that she could do it.”
The way other kids looked up to Bo inspired a young Kelsie.
“Seeing people talk about him in school … you could just see in their eyes how much they loved him and they wanted to be like him,” she said. “And I was the same way. But as the younger sister, you get to see firsthand every single thing he does and puts in, like how much work he puts in. And so I think that I could see the struggle and how hard it was, but I also saw the outcome and how happy he was. And I wanted that same thing. And I wanted to also be that inspiration for younger kids.”
Kelsie committed to the University of Nebraska in the fall of 2023.
The injury
In the Rockets’ last regular-season basketball game before the district tournament, Kelsie landed on her knee wrong.
“I just remember her laying on the ground, holding her knee, and I got an extremely sick feeling. I thought I was gonna faint,” Elliott said. “All you could think about is the future. We were working hard that offseason on hurdles and some records that she wanted to go after, and all that came crashing to an end.”
In the moment, it was tough. Kelsie’s basketball career came to a sudden end. So did her high school track career.
“During practice, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through,” she said. “Lots of tears. Like, so many. And just so much doubt in myself.”
They didn’t immediately know what would happen with the scholarship.
Elliott stayed in contact with her coaches to make sure everything was still good. They promised that it was.
“So that was a relief,” Elliott said.
From there, it was just about making the best from a non-ideal situation.
“As soon as you get that sorry feeling out of the way, and the ‘poor me’ stuff, you’ve just got to move on with rehab,” Elliott said. “And she did an unbelievable job just staying committed and focused and attacking each day.”
That summer, Kelsie continued her rehab down in Nebraska.
She came back to New Rockford at the end of the summer and started to run again.
“She looked pretty good the first time she came out and opened it up in front of me,” Elliott said. “And I was just thankful, that I think it’s gonna be back to normal.”
Adjusting to the college level
Kelsie went into her first collegiate track meet with no expectations.
She recalled thinking: “I’m just extremely happy and blessed to be back on the track. And so I’m just gonna go out there and show my talent that I was given and hope for the best.”
Her first meet with the Huskers was on Jan. 24, 2025. She took first place in the 400-meter, running a 55.75.
“I was very shocked at how fast the speed came back,” Elliott said. “And I had no idea. I’d never dealt with an ACL. We haven’t had any people, at all, have them in our school. So I didn’t know much about them. My dad had one way back, and you hear a bunch of horror stories from him about them. … Nowadays, everything’s so much different. And they bounce back stronger than ever.”
Going from New Rockford — a town of a little over 1,000 people in northeastern North Dakota — to a Division I, Big Ten program has given Kelsie the perspective to offer people advice on their own journeys.
“It’s completely different from what I grew up in high school,” she said. “But I obviously will never forget where I came from and the types of things I had to go through, because I do know there are other people out there with the same limited resources. And so I’d love to be a vessel to just be like, ‘Hey, I went through the same thing, but here I am, and you could do it also, if you put the work in.’”
The population of Lincoln, Neb., is about twice that of Fargo, N.D.
“Right away, it was really crazy,” Kelsie said. “But now it’s definitely like a home to me. It feels a lot like Fargo to me; it feels less busy than Fargo, but I don’t know. It’s nice.”
Kelsie had a smooth freshman season, all things considered. She finished 15th at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in both the 400-meter and 4×400 relay.
The Big Ten features 18 of the nation’s top college athletic programs.
“You’re going against USC and some of the best track schools out there,” Elliott said. “She got down to the Big Ten conference meet that year, and it was an eye opener of what you need to do.”
Kelsie made it to the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in May 2025. Her 4×400 relay team placed 10th.
For the second time in her track career, she got to run at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
“When we say we have resources, like, they have resources. Their track is insane. It’s like underground everything,” Kelsie said. “I think it’s almost intimidating the first couple times you go because you’re like, ‘Wow, this is huge.’ But a track is always going to be the same size. And that’s kind of something you have to remind yourself when going to bigger arenas and stuff like that. So taking a step back and being like, ‘This is just another race. This is the same size track.’ Yes, take it in, but also ground yourself in what you know.”
Continued progression
While her freshman season was all about getting back on the track, her sophomore season has been about competing at the highest level.
On Feb. 7, she ran a 23.46 in the 200-meter. It was her lifetime best and the second-fastest time in school history.
She recently finished seventh in the 400 at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. She ran a 52.47 — the third-best time in school history, which placed second — before taking seventh with a 53.37 in the Big Ten finals. She also took fifth in the 4×400 relay.
“I think it’s difficult mentally because you see ‘second in school history,’ but then I expected myself to do better in Big Ten,” Kelsie said. “So I’m obviously flooded with emotion from Big Ten, but I needed to take a step back and be like, ‘Okay, I’m doing these amazing things that are great for our school, and have not been here in how many years.’ And so I need to be blessed that I’m in this opportunity. But I’m also a very hard-headed person, and I see what I could do and I wish I would have done.”
Elliott said Kelsie’s determination is what’s helped her progress so quickly.
“She just stayed committed,” he said. “She works so hard, and she doesn’t take shortcuts. I can see why she’s doing it, because you know she’s going to put everything into it. That’s just the way she is. So to see her numbers come down now even more from last year, this year has just been unbelievable, I guess, and just a testament to her work ethic and her coach that she has down there, doing a pretty darn good job with her.”
Kelsie said her dad’s coaching has helped prepare her for this level.
“I known how tough people can be on you,” she said. “I’ve seen similarities, like my coach now is very similar to my dad. And so I’ve even told him that, and we laugh about it.”
Next up is the outdoor season — one of three more Kelsie still has ahead of her in college. She expects to compete in college hurdles for the first time this spring.
“I truly think she’s going to compete for Big Ten championships,” Elliott said. “The first goal’s gotta be a Big Ten championship, I think, for her. And I think that’s coming soon. … She’s right there. Just gotta get a little stronger and keep working. You don’t see a lot of freshmen, sophomores at the top, top level.”
Looking ahead
Elliott talked with Kelsie about her goals just recently.
The cherry on top of her track career would be qualifying for the 2028 Summer Olympics. She’ll be a senior by then.
“The good thing about track is that it’s easy to see where you’re at,” Elliott said. “It’s you and the clock. So if she can keep just getting better and better each meet and each year, she’s got a chance to do some special things.”
Right now, Kelsie said, she’s focused on making it to nationals. She can see herself becoming a national champion.
“But that takes growth in many more areas than just on the track,” she said. “[The Olympics] is a big, big dream, like end-goal type thing, but I try not to look too far ahead because there are goals that I need to hit to get to that point.”
In the meantime, she’s found a passion for giving back to the next wave of female athletes — which includes her sister, NR-S junior Emmie Belquist.
“I have a younger sister, and social media is insane, and they feel like they have to be someone that they aren’t,” Kelsie said. “And I think that’s what SheSports is there for, is to say that you don’t have to be like that. Here’s all these D-I athletes that struggle every day, and they’re going to be real with you on the app. You can ask them anything, and they will answer. They can give you compliments, and we will high-five you back. There are tons of things that this app offers that social media doesn’t, and that’s exactly why I wanted to join it and be a part of it.”
Kelsie joined the platform after connecting with former Nebraska volleyball player Maisie Boesiger, who graduated in 2025.
“I honestly didn’t think it was real because they’re almost like celebrities at our school, the volleyball team. They’re super well-known and popular. And so I kind of thought it was a scam,” Kelsie said, laughing.
Elliott said becoming a SheSports athlete was a natural fit for his daughter. He likes that she’ll have a little job at school while she trains.
“It’s perfect, right up her alley,” he said. “She’s kind of been dabbling with sports psychology and the mental side of things in sports. So, I mean, that’s a great fit for her, talking to kids about challenges and being a college athlete or whatever. She’ll be great with that, and she has a lot to tell, I think. She has a lot of stories now, coming through adversity and dealing with adversity, that I think could maybe help some younger people.”
Kelsie has found a home in Nebraska.
With it, she’s flourished both athletically and personally.
“I want to grow as a person first,” she said. “Growing as a person also helps you run.”
