Distance Night in Palatine- 4/20/24
Cormick Buti
4/21/2024
On Saturday, April 20th 2024, John Ihrke (Sr) competed at Distance Night in Palatine in the 800 meter. Ihrke was seeded second in the fastest heat of the Main Event, behind first by 0.3. Following the starter’s gun, Ihrke almost tripped and fell, causing him to have to fight to get the positioning he wanted in the first 100 meters. But once he recovered from the start, Ihrke took the lead with everyone else in the race in a close pack right behind him. Ihrke kept pushing the pace and kept the lead all to himself the first lap. He went through the 400 mark at a speedy 56.5 with the entire pack still hot on his heels. Onto their final lap Ihrke’s lead is contested by multiple other athletes trying to get ahead of him, but none succeed until the turn onto the final straight away. Going into the last 100 meters, one guy surged past Ihrke into the lead which Ihrke had kept all to himself throughout the race up until that point. Ihrke gave it everything he had in the last 100 meters but it wasn’t enough to catch the guy ahead of him, but it was enough to hold off everyone behind him securing a 2nd place finish with a time of 1:55.86, less than a second off his season PR. Ihrke’s time put him at a new Illinois #6 time for this outdoor season, way to go John!!