Mastodon runners double up on sibling camaraderie

As Nathan Mills recalls, the Purdue University Fort Wayne cross country teams were jogging through a warm-up run early last year when someone mentioned twins. After all, Mills had a twin brother Nick, B.S. ’23, on the team, then-freshmen Colin and Colten Gasson were joining the squad, and then-junior Mercedes Sarver had come to PFW as a freshman with her twin sister, Kiannah.

“It was the beginning of practice one day when others started saying, `I’m a twin,’ `Yeah, me, too,’ and `I have a twin,’” said Mills, B.S. ’23, who along with his brother still has a year left in eligibility. “All these mystery twins started popping up because these others had twins, too. Half our team seemed to be twins.”

Almost, though the Mills and the Gassons are the only full sets in the program because the twins of other runners do not complete. Senior Kehinde Oladapo has a twin sister, as does junior Kobe Milledge, and sophomore Harrison Niswander. Sarver’s sister transferred and still runs for Cleveland State.

“It was definitely an adjustment because I was used to doing everything with her,” Sarver said. “Now both of us enjoy being on our own a little and being our own person—but it’s still fun to see her at different cross country and track meets, and we compete against each other then.”

This year’s list of PFW twins doesn’t include recent graduate Husam Saleh, B.S. ’23, who has a twin sister, or the all-but-twins Jack and Seth Mills. Jack is the younger brother of Nick and Nathan, and he and Seth are not actually related. They’ve been best friends forever growing up in Columbia City, sharing refrigerator rights at each other’s homes, and now rooming together. 

“It makes a very tight bond with each other and all the relationships on the team,” Nick Mills said. “It makes a family atmosphere very quickly.”

And that’s kind of the point, according to coach Aaron Combs. If he can recruit twins or siblings, he already knows they are very competitive and it saves time.

“It’s not a question I typically ask in the recruiting process, but if I’m going through high school rosters and I see that here are brothers and sisters or twins, I will seek them out first,” Combs said. “I want this to be a family. With our sport, a coach can’t be there every step or every mile, but if they have a built-in training partner, they are together that whole time.”

Combs said he’s expanded efforts to enticing younger brothers and sisters for the future. After taking over the program in 2019, he started building around the Mills brothers, and last year PFW finished third in the Horizon League, the best among all Mastodon athletic teams. The runners also had PFW’s—and the conference’s—best grade point average, finishing 13th nationally.

As for the number of twins, team members say it gets brought up at least twice a month. Nathan Mills said a lot of the team members are first-generation college students, so having a twin around gives them a built-in friend to go through things with, especially training. He and Nick get a kick out of watching how the Gassons intensely compete.

“Competition is always around, whether it’s simple tasks around the house or whatever,” Colton Gasson said. “Trying to be the better twin is something you always find yourself doing. On top of that, running has definitely given us another level of something else to compete at.”