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SIOUX FALLS — Sioux Falls Lincoln senior Ali Bainbridge has been named the 2022 South Dakota Gatorade player of the year for girls cross country.
While Bainbridge is the first Patriot to earn the honor, it's her second time receiving the award, having been recognized at Lennox as a freshman in 2019.
This past fall, the 5-foot-3 senior raced to the Class AA individual state championship with a time of 17:26.09, leading Lincoln to third place as a team. Bainbridge also won the Nike Heartland Preview, the Augustana Twilight Meet and the Clyde Cotton Invitational, in addition to finishing fourth in the Gold Race at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational. She took sixth at the Nike Heartland Regional Championships and missed becoming an All-American at Nike Cross Nationals by one place, finishing three seconds behind the final honoree.
Bainbridge has maintained a 3.97 weighted GPA in the classroom and has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at the University of Nebraska this fall.
The state player of the year award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, also makes Bainbridge a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade national girls cross country player of the year award, which is yet to be announced.
