Earlier this June, the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) recognized the achievements of two Bellevue College teams and two student-athletes, inducting them into the 2025 Hall of Fame.
The Northwest Athletic Conference is the parent organization for 37 community colleges throughout Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Annually, they honor exceptional athletes, coaches and teams within the NWAC by presenting awards like Coach of the Year and inducting new members into the Hall of Fame.
The two teams recognized, while being the only two inducted this year, are Bellevue College’s 1981 Women’s Cross Country team and 1983 Women’s Track and Field team. Rhonda Bell and Lisa Kindelan were Bellevue College’s student athletes inducted, among six other student athlete inductees across the conference.
In total, half of the Hall of Fame inductees this year hail from Bellevue College.
Starting after the first inductee of the ceremony, track and field athlete, Rhonda Bell was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously. At the 1980 Spokane Community College meet, Bell won the 400-meter, 200-meter and long-jump events. She set meet record times for the 200-meter event and established the second-best long jump in NWAC history. Additionally, Bell anchored the winning 1600-meter relay for Bellevue College during that meet. Highlighting her accomplishments, she was named Bellevue College Female Athlete of the Year.
Bell further defended her titles in the 400 and 200-meter events in the following 1981 season. Even more than 40 years later, Bell still holds the fastest 400-meter race times in the NWAC, at 53.69 and 54.21 seconds.
Bell continued her athletic career at Oregon State University, going on to establish an eighth all-time in the 400-meter race and being named “All-Pac 10” twice. After an incredibly decorated career, Bell sadly passed away in 2015.
Also inducted into the Hall of Fame was cross-country and track athlete Lisa Kindelan.
She led Bellevue’s women’s cross country team to its first women’s championship, the NWAC Cross Country Championship in 1980, and won the individual championship with a record time of 17:53 in 1981. By the time the season finished, Bellevue College’s cross-country team ranked #1 nationally. Kindelan helped Bellevue College win the NWAC championships in 1981 and 1982. She ran impressive times of 10:20 for the 3K race and a 17:54 for the 5K in 1981.
Kindelan transferred to the University of Idaho, where she competed all-conference in cross country and track and field during her upperclassmen years. Kindelan remains the only woman in the NWAC to compete in three Olympic trials, placing 10th, 19th, and 29th in her three trial marathons. Throughout the 1990s, she competed in many notable marathons, such as the U.S. Marathon (2:35:00) in 1995 and the USA 5K championships in 1996. Kindelan was also a member of the U.S. Track and Field team at Seattle’s Goodwill Games in 1990, where she finished in fourth.
Bellevue College’s 1981 Women’s Cross Country team and 1983 Track & Field team were last to be inducted. Throughout the 1980s, they contributed greatly to Bellevue College’s athletic history.
Notably, 1981’s Women’s Cross Country competed exceedingly well at the NWAC championship that season. The first, second and third place finishes by the Bellevue College athletes rank as three of the four fastest times ever run at a NWAC Cross Country Championship. The team’s first, second, third, seventh, eighth and ninth placements during the NWAC’s Women’s Cross Country Championship helped contribute to their undisputed win that year.
Additionally, Bellevue College’s 1983 Women’s Track and Field team remains the most dominant team in NWAC history. Thirteen out of seventeen events at the NWAC Track and Field Championships were won by this team, as well as scoring in all seventeen events. The athletes set four conference records and three of them remain today.
Bellevue College athletics director, Jeremy Eggers, emphasized his pride about the Hall of Fame inductions. “This was a great way to honor the rich sports history at Bellevue College,” Eggers said. He also noted that this was the first time in eight years that Bellevue College had been honored by the NWAC.
It was clear that representation mattered to Eggers during this year’s nomination process. “Bellevue College didn’t have any females or female teams inducted prior, so I thought that was an important thing to acknowledge,” says the athletic director. “These were the best of the best at the time in the NWAC. These are very good representations of our athletic department, and what they did back then is what we’re continuing to strive to do in the sports that we do currently have.”
This year’s inductees represent what Bellevue College’s athletics have always been about一dedication and hard work in the face of adversity. Congratulations to the inductees and Bellevue College athletics!
