Boy’s Junior Olympics meet interrupted by injury

Wes Nolen is taking the rest of the summer off. Not that it’s his first choice.

The 14-year-old javelin thrower from North Pines Middle School injured his left arm at the regional Junior Olympics track and field meet on Saturday in Seattle. Instead of stalking the Inland Empire record in his event, Nolen spent the day having a pin surgically installed in his elbow.

“We have the whole thing on videotape,” said Nolen’s mother, Shari. “We’ve watched the whole thing in slow motion. It’s just one of those things where he landed wrong.”

Nolen, making his first attempt at the long jump, landed wrong and used his left arm to catch himself. In the process, he momentarily dislocated his elbow and broke a chip off his forearm.

“That’s supposed to be one of the last areas to fully form, so in a kid his age it’s still a little fragile,” Shari Nolen explained. “So while everyone else was enjoying the meet, Wes was in surgery having that piece of bone reattached with a screw.”

Nolen qualified in four events — long jump, javelin and the 400 and 800 relays— for the regional meet, which feeds directly into the nationals July 27-31 in Eugene, Ore.

The whole family made the trek across the mountains for the meet, Shari Nolen said, a fortunate turn of events.

“It ended up that my sister was there and was able to look after the rest of the family while Wes’ dad and I waited while Wes was in surgery,” she laughed. “Good timing.”

Wes Nolen will have his left arm in a cast for at least three weeks. Beyond that, the rehabilitation will depend on how quickly he heals.

“They’ll know more when they see how it heals,” his mother said. “The doctors said there’s a slight chance that there would be some nerve damage.

“We were afraid that Wes would be really bummed out about not having the chance to go to the national Junior Olympics, but he’s been so calm about it that I’m really impressed. He figures he’ll have other chances and that what’s meant to be will be.”

Wes Nolen capped a sensational middle-school track season by flirting with the area’s record for the javelin at the Inland Empire qualifying tournament, throwing well over 150 feet only to scratch. He qualified for the Seattle meet with a throw of 142 feet, 2 inches. The record, 149-3, was set by Bob Wilske of Cheney in 2002.

Nolen shattered the middle school mark this spring, hurling the 400 gram TURBO-Jav 205-4, breaking the area’s middle school record by 29 feet.

Moving up to the rigid, 600 gram javelin for his age group, he was consistently throwing over 150 feet leading up to last weekend’s meet at Chief Sealth High School in Seattle.

Now the youngster will begin training to run cross country in the fall and begin work with the 800 gram javelin he will use as a freshman on the University High track team.