BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced that Bemidji State University student-athletes Katrina Barthelt (Women's Soccer) and Logan Schoepp (Men's Golf) were winners of the 2026 NSIC Honor Student-Athlete Award.
 
Barthelt and Schoepp were nominated for the league's prestigious Britton & Kelly Awards as top male and female student-athletes within the NSIC. The member institutions of the NSIC nominate one male and one female student-athlete for the Britton and Kelly Awards. The nominees must meet the following criteria: a grade point average of 3.5 or better (on a 4.0 scale); evidence of academic excellence beyond the minimum grade point average (scholarship prizes and other academic recognition), evidence of participation in the life of the institution, and evidence of participation in at least two-thirds of the varsity events of the individual's primary sport. The award is voted on by the NSIC Faculty Athletic Representatives.
 
University of Minnesota Duluth's Elizabeth VanLoon as the 2026 Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award winner and Minnesota State University Moorhead's Jack Strand as the recipient of the 2026 Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award. 
 
Barthelt graduated from Bemidji State with a degree in Exercise Science and achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She is a United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American, College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, NSIC Elite 18 Award winner and NSIC Outstandings Senior of the Year in women's soccer. On the field, she was a D2CAA All-American, D2CCA Central Region Player of the Year, NSIC Offensive Player of the Year and United Soccer Coaches All-Central Region First Team.
 
Schoepp has achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.97 and is graduating with an Accounting degree from Bemidji State in the spring. He is the program's first CSC Academic All-American At-Large First team selection and earned NSIC Myles Brand honors last spring. On the course, Schoepp led the Beavers at the NSIC Men's Golf Championship earning All-Tournament Team honors and led the team with a 73.6 scoring average during the season.
 
The Britton Award was created in 1985 in honor of Dr. William Britton, a longtime faculty representative at Bemidji State University who served on the Athletic Board of Control of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference for 25 years. Britton retired from BSU in 1982 and passed away in March of 2019. 
 
The Kelly Award is named in honor of Willis R. Kelly, an associate professor of physical education at the University of Minnesota-Morris. A member of the NSIC Hall of Fame, Kelly also coordinated the Minnesota-Morris Physical Education Department from 1970-87. She became the first director of women's intercollegiate athletics at Minnesota-Morris in 1976 and was later promoted to athletics director for the whole department. Kelly passed away in 1988.
 
Located on the shore of Lake Bemidji, Bemidji State University sponsors 15 varsity athletic programs with NCAA Division I men's hockey in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and women's hockey in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, while its 13 NCAA Division II programs hold membership in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
 
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