Old Town sophomore Cassie Hintz has been named the 2004 Gatorade Maine High School Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Hintz shattered the all-classes record in the 3,200-meter run at the Class B state meet at Windham earlier this month.

Her clocking of 10 minutes, 39.43 seconds bested the previous Class B standard of 10:42.80 set by Laura Duffy of Kennebunk in 1986.

Hintz also set a state record in the 3,200 during the Class B state indoor championships last winter with a time of 10:48.49, and anchored Old Town’s state championship 4×800 indoor relay team.

“She’s very committed and extremely dedicated to running and training,” said Old Town coach Rod White. “She’s the most focused and consistent distance runner I’ve coached in more than 20 years at Old Town.”

Hintz also maintains an A+ grade average and is a member of the school band.

Brian Vail of Deering High of Portland was named the Gatorade Maine High School Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Vail won the 400-meter championship, placed second in the 800 and anchored a first-place 4×400 relay team at the Class A state meet to lead Deering to its first title in boys outdoor track since 1975.

Brown takes MCI hoop reins

Mike Brown, boys varsity basketball coach at Mount View High of Thorndike for the last nine years, has been named to the same post at Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.

The Clinton native, a graduate of Lawrence High of Fairfield and Bowdoin College, replaces Mike Susi, who stepped down after two seasons of guiding the Huskies. MCI finished 2-16 in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B ranks last winter.

“We’ve got three or four kids coming back who are pretty good players, and our incoming sophomore class is pretty good,” said the 34-year-old Brown. “If we can avoid injuries, I think we can be competitive next year.”

While at Mount View, Brown compiled a 71-101 regular-season record, but went 56-52 over the last six seasons while leading the Mustangs to four appearances in the Eastern Maine Class B tournament.

The Mustangs narrowly missed the playoffs last winter, finishing with an 8-10 record.

Lynch named Mount View AD

Tom Lynch, a veteran educator, basketball official and coach, has been named athletic director at Mount View High in Thorndike.

Lynch spent four years as an athletic director and assistant principal at Calais High among his 28 years in education.

“Of all the jobs I’ve had in my years in education, that was probably the most enjoyable,” said Lynch, who lives in Hermon. “I’ve always liked working with young people, and I’ve always been active in athletics either as a player, a referee or a coach.”

Lynch worked in SAD 3 during the most recent school year as a long-term substitute mathematics teacher at Mount View Junior High School.

He sees his many challenges in his new job, but perhaps the most formidable task is balancing the Mount View athletic program with the economic realities of the modern-day school budget.

“I think the biggest one is trying to keep all the programs going for as many students as we can within the tight budgets all schools face,” Lynch said. “You have to make it all fit.”

Lynch is perhaps best known in Eastern Maine athletic circles for his 30 years spent as a high school basketball official. He plans to continue to officiate, but expects to work a reduced number of games due to his athletic director responsibilities.

Lynch was approved for the Mount View AD post during the June 14 meeting of the SAD 3 board of directors, and officially begins his new duties on July 1.

Withee leaves FA baseball post

Paul Withee, who coached Foxcroft Academy of Dover-Foxcroft to the 2002 Eastern Maine Class B baseball championship, has stepped down from that post.

Withee plans to watch his son Josh, the 2004 Penobscot Valley Conference Class B player of the year, continue his baseball career at Springfield (Mass.) College next year. He also wants to help out with his daughter’s junior high softball team next spring.

Withee will continue to coach the Ponies’ football team, which won the 2003 Class C state champion. He is the school’s career leader in football coaching wins over his 14 years at the helm, including last fall’s 12-0 season.

Withee coached baseball at Foxcroft for eight years overall during two stints, between 1992 and 1996 and from 2002 to 2004 His teams qualified for postseason play in six of those eight seasons.

In addition to the 2002 EM championship, he led Foxcroft to two other appearances in the regional final, in 1992 and 2003.

This spring Foxcroft finished 11-6, earning the No. 4 seed in Eastern B before bowing out in the quarterfinals to Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor.

Rogers named All-American

Mount Ararat baseball star Mark Rogers, the 2004 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year, is scheduled to arrive in Arizona on Wednesday to begin his professional baseball career with the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

He does so as a high school All-American.

Rogers, who received the Dr. John Winkin Award as Maine’s Mr. Baseball last Friday, also earned another honor on the same day he signed his first pro contract – he was named a first-team high school All-American by Baseball America.

Rogers compiled a 9-1 record with 166 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings this spring while leading Mount Ararat to its second straight Eastern Maine Class A championship.

The righthander, the No. 5 overall pick in the June 7 amateur draft by Milwaukee, agreed with the Brewers last Friday on a contract that pays him a $2.2 million signing bonus, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The Orrs Island native spent Tuesday in Milwaukee meeting the Brewers, team officials and the local media before heading to Maryvale, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, to join Milwaukee’s rookie league team.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net