WICHITA — Throughout his time at Humboldt High School, senior Joe Kline has stood out from the pack.
When the Humboldt student section dressed up in a show of support for their volleyball or girls’ basketball team on their runs to the state tournament, you can pretty much guarantee Kline will be in the front row, showing his support as flamboyantly as he possibly can.
When the Humboldt boys’ basketball team made its journey to the state’s No. 1 ranking this season with soft-spoken players such as Rayce Hoepker, Daylon Splane and Lance Daniels joining Kline in the starting lineup, Kline took the team’s vocal leadership role on the court.
On Saturday, Kline’s Cub career came to a close, but just like when he’s rooting on the Cubs at a volleyball game, Kline made sure he went out with style.
The Allen Community College signee stalked the leader for the first two laps of the four-lap 1600-meter run by posting splits of 1:08 and 1:12 as he waited for his chance to make his move.
The third lap saw Kline post another 1:08, but when the fourth and final lap arrived Kline could taste the title waiting for him.
“I’ve wanted it ever since freshman year,” Kline said. “It took me a while to get to here, but now I finally made it.”
Kline roared to a 1:02 final lap, leaving the lead pack in his wake and crossing the finish line with a comfortable enough margin that he was able to watch himself on the stadium’s video screen and give the crowd a quick fist pump before raising his left hand in the arm and holding up one finger to indicate his placing.
“It feels so good,” Kline said about becoming a state champion. “I worked really hard for it.”
Even on the podium afterwards, Kline spun around to gesture to the crowd behind him and fire them up and then he held his medal in his mouth while holding up his finger again to let everyone who won the race.
All the while, the meet’s photographer was trying to encourage him to stand still so they could get the standard podium picture, but as any Humboldt fan could have told him, ‘That is just Joe being Joe.’
“I am glad to finally be able to put me name up on the record board and have state champion nest to it,” Kline said.
Kline followed up his performance in the 1600-meters with a fourth-place showing in the 800-meter run.
Although Kline was seeded first going into the meet, he didn’t let finish dampen his podium exploits. Much to the photographer’s dismay, Kline lifted four fingers in the air. When the photographer asked him to stop and indicated that it listed their places on the podium below their feet, Kline respectfully explained that he was holding up his fingers for the close-up shots.
With that the photographer relented and just took the shot with Kline’s four fingers raised. One last win for Joe.
OTHER RESULTS
Kline wasn’t the only Cub senior with a memorable final meet.
