Tuesday October 19, 2021
By Jarrod Ulrey
Senior Sharmarke Ali is making an impact with Gahanna Lincoln after running for Linden-McKinley last season. Aria Ala-U-Dini/ThisWeek
Since moving to Gahanna during the offseason, senior Sharmarke Ali has enjoyed becoming a part of the community and competing for the Gahanna Lincoln boys cross country team this fall.
While Ali has settled in as the No. 4 runner after being one of the top competitors for Linden-McKinley last season, the other four members of Gahanna’s top five are underclassmen, including one who is a freshman.
“It’s been nice being at Gahanna and it’s a nice place to run,” said Ali, who along with his teammates is preparing for the Division I postseason.
Ali, who has been battling a hip flexor injury, was ninth in the City League meet last season in 18 minutes, 39.9 seconds.
Born in Somalia, Ali grew up in Uganda until coming to the United States in 2017. He previously lived in Indiana before moving to Columbus.
His times have consistently been at least a minute faster than a year ago, when he helped Linden earn a league runner-up finish.
“He’s a really tough competitor, so it’s nice to have him,” coach Ryan Beck said. “The guys are getting a little more mature and some of their training has been coming together, so there’s a little more cohesion.
“We’re a young team. We just need a little bit tighter of a spread. Ideally, I’d love to see our front three be within 10 seconds of each other so that they can run as a really tight pack. And I’d love to see Sharmarke and Owen Towler, who’s a freshman, running about 30 to 35 seconds behind them, which I think is doable. Owen has training parity with our top guys, and it’s just a matter of applying it to the races.”
The OCC-Ohio Division meet was held Oct. 16 at Westerville North, and Gahanna will compete in one of three Division I district meets Oct. 23 at Hilliard Darby. The top five teams and top 20 individuals in each will advance to the regional Oct. 30 at Pickerington North.
Last season, the Lions were fourth at district and 12th at regional.
Juniors Charlie Slates and Abinur Sileshi, who were Gahanna’s No. 3 and No. 5 runners, respectively, at last year’s regional, and sophomore K’Tyo Hendershott, who was the No. 6 runner, have moved into roles at the top of the lineup this fall.
On Oct. 2 in the Centerville Saturday Night Lights, Slates finished 26th (16:28.9), followed by Sileshi (36th, 16:37.8), Hendershott (45th, 16:46.1), Ali (61st, 17:02.1) and Towler (100th, 17:41.3).
Seniors Jordon Anderson and Varun Miriyala and junior William Michael are others who have been in the lineup.
According to Slates, the Lions have shown significant improvement as the season has gone on after losing two of their top five runners to graduation and having another of their top competitors from last season elect not to return.
Slates also believes that while the addition of Ali has helped, the team’s postseason success will be determined by how far its pack can move up.
“We’ve kind of had a lot of turnover on the team from the past year,” Slates said. “Coming into the first race, we were unsure how we were going to do and I was injured, so the first race didn’t go the best for us. We had a really good summer of training, so after that first race, we tried to rebound.
“Sharmarke is great. ... He’s a really funny guy and he’s always working hard. The strength of our team is our pack. We don’t have somebody who’s crazy fast, but we have a group of five guys that can finish 30 seconds from each other. It’s really about shifting up our whole pack.”