PORTLAND – Abbie Rabine, a 1997 graduate of Portland’s Deering High School, nearly became the first New England woman in 68 years to be chosen as Miss America.

Rabine, 22, was named first runner-up to Katie Harman of Oregon on Saturday night in the nationally televised pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.

“Abbie was so happy about it,” said her brother, Matt Rabine, 21, from the family’s home in Portland. “I was very excited for her, but in some ways a little disappointed [at her having come so close to winning].”

Rabine, the reigning Miss Massachusetts, returned Monday to Gordon College, where she is a senior majoring in music education.

At Deering, Rabine ran indoor and outdoor track and organized girls football games against other schools.

“She was more of a tomboy,” her brother said. “She played wide receiver and defensive back and she was actually pretty good.”

Academics were more challenging, in part because of a stutter she overcame with help from speech and reading specialists.

“When she was younger, she was always in the lowest reading level,” Matt Rabine said. “Not that she was stupid at all. She always got A’s and B’s. But she would have to re-read everything. Long words were sometimes hard to understand.”

That experience inspired her public service platform: Making Disabilities Abilities.

“She’s getting a lot of good publicity for her platform, which is what she wanted,” Matt Rabine said. “So she’s gotten many doors open for opportunities, probably as many as Miss Oregon did, but without the added stress.”

Rabine said his sister won roughly $52,000 in scholarships and is considering a year-long appearance tour, offered to the five finalists selected from the field of 51.

The only New Englander crowned Miss America was Marion Bergeron, a 16-year-old high school junior from West Haven, Conn., in 1933.