Ali Bainbridge Season 2026

Career Performance List

Honors and Awards
» NCAA All-Midwest Region (2024)
» Second-Team All-Big Ten (2024, 2025)
» Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award (First Team, 2026)
» Big Ten Distinguished Scholar (2025, 2026)
» Academic All-Big Ten (2024)
» Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society (2026)
» Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll (Fall 2023, 2024; Spring 2024, 2025*, 2026*)
» Tom Osborne Citizenship Team (2024, 2025, 2026)

*Denotes 4.0 GPA 

2025-26 (Junior)
Track & Field
Bainbridge competed in three events in the indoor portion of the track & field season. She opened her indoor competition by running a 4:43.59 in the women's mile at the Mark Colligan Memorial (1/24) to claim second place. At the DeLoss Dodds Invitational (1/30), she placed fifth in the women's 3000m with a personal-best 9:16.55. At the Big Ten Championship, Bainbridge finished 12th in the women's 5000m, running a time of 16:11.04. She also posted a time of 9:22.81 in the 3000m race, claiming an 18th place finish. 

Bainbridge opened the outdoor season with a second-place finish at the Nebraska Spring Tune-Up, posting a time of 4:27.59. At the Stanford Invitational, she posted the seventh-highest 10000m time in school history, recording a 33:06.7 to finish 18th. At the Big Ten Championships, Bainbridge finished fifth in the women's 10000m with a time of 33:48.41 and 10th in the 5000m at 17:12.53. 

Cross Country
Bainbridge was a second-team All-Big Ten selection in the fall in cross country for the second consecutive season, competing in four events for the Big Red. She was Nebraska's top finisher in three of four events she competed in. 

At the Gans Creek Classic 6k (9/26), Bainbridge led all Huskers with a 34th place finish, tallying a time of 20:07.4. At Pre-Nationals, she finished in 24th with a time of 20:03.9. At the Big Ten Championships, Bainbridge earned an 18th place finish in the 6k with a time of 20:30.6. At the NCAA Midwest Regional, she finished her cross country season with a 26th place finish and a time of 21:06.9. 

2024-25 (Sophomore)
Track & Field
As a sophomore, Bainbridge's season was highlighted by recording the second-fastest 5000m time in school history (16:07.10) at the Boston Valentine Invitational. 

Ran the fourth-fastest time in school history in the 3000m, finishing in 9:20.88, earning third place at the Dr. Rick McGuire Invitational…Placed fifth in the mile at the Graduate Classic, running 4:46.36…Claimed an 11th-place finish in the 5000m at the Big Ten Championships, running 16:23.29, and a 13th-place finish in the 3000m with a time of 9:18.42.

Outdoor: Ran 16:25.13 in the 5000m at the NCAA West Prelims to finish 24th…Clocked a pair of second-fastest times in school history at the Big Ten Championships, running 15:54.16 in the 5000m for eighth and 33:24.07 in the 10000m for fifth…Ran 4:26.46 at the Ward Haylett Invite in the 1500m for fourth…Finished 25th in the 10,000m at the Stanford Invitational, running 33:31.88…Placed eighth in the 5,000m at the Bryan Clay Invitational, running 16:02.40.

Cross Country
Earned Second-Team All-Big Ten and NCAA All-Midwest Region honors…Represented NU at the 2024 NCAA Championships and placed 76th with a 6k time of 20:26.00…Was the Huskers’ top finisher at the Big Ten Championships (19:46.20, 6k) and the NCAA Midwest Regional (19:53.82, 6k)...Led the Huskers with a second-place finish and 5k time of 17:37.40 at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational…Crossed the line at 20:08.60 at the Bill Dellinger Invitational for a seventh-place finish. 

2023-24 (Freshman)
Indoor: Ran a season-best 9:39.12 in the 3000m at the Big Ten Championships, placing 25th…contributed to the distance medley relay at conference, finishing eighth with an 11:26.56, the fourth-best time clocked on an oversized track in school history…added season-best times in the mile at the Nebraska Tune-Up (4:50.85) and in the 800m at the Mark Colligan Memorial (2:18.09).

Outdoor: Finished 10th in the 10,000m at the Big Ten Championships with the sixth-fastest time in school history (34:27.09)...added a 14th-place finish in the 5,000m at conference with a 16:40.02…ran the eighth-best 5,000m time in school history at the Bryan Clay Invitational with a 16:29.39…pitched in a 12th-place finish in the 5,000m at the Stanford Invitational (16:49.54) and a 20th-place finish at the Drake Relays (16:31.39).

Cross Country: Provided Nebraska’s top finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional and Big Ten Championship, helping the Huskers post their best regional and conference finishes since 2011…Placed 33rd at the Midwest Regional with a time of 21:29.2…Crossed the line at 21:42.8 at the Big Ten Championships to take 19th…Finished second at the Platte River Rumble (21:04.2) and sixth at the Gans Creek Classic (21:08.7)

Before Nebraska
Joined the Huskers from Sioux Falls, S.D....two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in South Dakota...set the 1600m, 3200m and 5k school records at two high schools (Lennox and Sious Falls Lincoln)...garnered 23 top-five state medals between cross country and track.

Personal
Bainbridge, born on Sept. 6, 2004, is the daughter of Lisa and Brent Bainbridge. She has one sister, Maisey.