BIDDEFORD — When Sam Mills first made his way around the cross country course at Rotary Park during his freshman season, it didn’t go so well.
“When I did it my freshman year I was probably, if not last, really close to last,” Mills recalled.
His struggles at the difficult course didn’t last as three years later he completed his last run around Rotary Park — and Mills would make it back-to-back years with a victory in the Tigers’ lone home meet of the season on Friday afternoon.

“My sophomore year I finished as the top runner for our team, and then last year I won it and this year I won it,” said Mills, who wanted to show everyone that he could master the tough course. “It’s really important to me that I can go out here and show that I’m capable of taking these hills.”

Mills ran the course in 17:13 to take home the victory. Portland’s Liam Niles was second in 17:37 and South Portland’s Clifford Robbins-Sennewald came home in third with a time of 17:46. Portland’s Wyatt Dana (17:58) and Joe Harrington (18:12) rounded out the top five.

Biddeford coach Chris Quint was thrilled to see Mills come home with the victory.
“It means everything,” said Quint on Mills finishing his Rotary Park career with a win. “He’s been working very hard this season. He had a good summer of training and he’s really running at a place where we want him to right now.”
The Biddeford coach knows it will be tough to replace Mills next season.
“He has meant everything. He’s been our No. 1 guy for, I’ve been here two years, so for the last two years and probably the last three years,” said Quint, who is hoping Mills can go out with a bang. “He’s just getting better every year. He’s working very hard and he’s got big goals and big aspirations. I think this year, his senior year, you’re going to really see some special things from him.”
Biddeford would get a seventh-place finish from Chris Walton, who finished with a time of 18:24, and Matt Ferley was the third-best finisher for the Tigers with a 24th-place finish in 19:45.
Portland won the boys meet with 29 points. Gorham was second with 57 and South Portland finished third with 71. Biddeford came home in fourth place as a team with 76 points.
Despite the loss on Friday, Mills is hoping this group can finish in the top 10 at regionals and qualify for the state meet as a team.
“I’ve been running at states alone since my sophomore year so for me, personally, it would be really nice to have everyone there with me on the start line and to qualify as a team,” Mills said. “Today, I think we had our entire top seven (go) sub-20 (minutes) which is big for us. We had a lot of (personal records) for everyone today.”
Quint is confident his team has what it takes to make some noise at regionals.
“We as a team, we’re still a relatively young team. We lost a lot of seniors (from) last year, but we’re starting to come around and I think with good month of work, we’ll be a contender to go to states this year,” Quint said.

In the girls’ meet, Gorham’s Kate Tugman would run away with the win as the standout finished in 19:28. The second-place finisher, Portland’s Inez Braceras, would finish nearly three minutes later as she crossed the line in 22:13.
Gorham’s Emily Paruk finished third in 22:57 with South Portland’s Eileen Porterfield (23:02) and Rachael Kingsley (23:10) rounding out the top five.
The team race would go to Gorham with 38 points. Portland was second with 49, while South Portland (66) finished third and Biddeford (69) fourth.
Biddeford would get a seventh-place finish from Jordina Coleman, who finished in 23:31. Sitsanok Young crossed the line in 23:49 to finish eighth and Macy Katanga (24:07) finished 10th for the Tigers.
“This group of girls works hard every day. They’re definitely getting better every day. I’m super proud of them today,” said Quint.
Quint was thrilled to host a meet at Rotary Park — and the Biddeford coach would love to see the course get one of the state’s top events in the future.
“We love it. Obviously I’m biased, but I’ll put this course up against any other course in the state,” said Quint. “We here at Biddeford have an amazing resource in Rotary Park. To have this as our place where we train and where we host home meets, we just love it. We’re hoping down the road we can showcase this to a larger audience with regionals or states maybe, but that’s down the road.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

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