YATES CENTER — Humboldt High’s Joe Kline, a state qualifier in the 1600-meter run in 2015, suffered a broken right arm during a track meet at Yates Center Tuesday, and underwent surgery Friday.
According to Humboldt coach Eric Carlson, the junior injured his arm leaning for the finish line of the 1600, trying to edge out Yates Center freshman Hadley Splechter. Kline fell after crossing the finish line and landed awkwardly on his arm.
“He said, he knew immediately it was broken,” Carlson said.
According to photographs taken shortly after the event, Kline’s arm was noticeably bent between the elbow and wrist.
Kline immediately went to the hospital.
“He will have a full-arm cast for a week to two weeks, then he will have just a regular arm cast for another week,” Carlson said.
In addition to qualifying for state in the 1600 last year, Kline also qualified in the 3200 meters.
“The doctor told him he won’t do any running while he has that full arm cast on,” Carlson said. “Then as he starts to feel a little bit better, they said he can see how he feels and go from there.”
Carlson is hopeful that Kline will be able to return in time for regionals.
“We are looking at, he might be ready for league or he might not be ready until regionals,” Carlson said. “Normally that would be a horrible thing but I think we have a pretty forgiving regional this year.”
The loss of Kline will likely affect the Cubs’ chances of winning the league title for the second year in a row.
“I said earlier this year that I thought we had a chance of repeating as league champions,” Carlson said. “Well, that kind of goes out the window now. We can’t compete with Yates Center with Joe out.”
Carlson is comforted by the fact that he trusts Kline’s work ethic to get back to 100 percent as soon as he starts feeling better.
“The good thing about Joe is that he runs every morning on his own,” Carlson said. “He is in really good shape, but coming back he won’t be back in track shape.”
That same work ethic is what makes Carlson so disappointed that this injury had to happen to Kline. “I really feel for him because I know how driven he has been all season long.”
