Clint pole vaulter Matthew Portillo follows family footsteps to state

Track and field, more than most sports, is about chasing incremental goals, striving for personal bests and the little victories along a wider path that if followed long enough, can lead to the very top. Clint pole vaulter Matthew Portillo is on the cusp of one mountaintop when he heads to the Texas Class 4A UIL meet in Austin Thursday, May 14, coming off his Region I-4A championship earned with a school-record leap of 15 feet. More: El Paso high school track and field athletes shine at regional meets His climb there has been steady, almost inevitable, since he took up the event his freshman year, and along his journey, one of those incremental goals stood out.

Portillo got into the vault because it was the event of his father Juan, a vaulter for Clint more than a quarter century ago (Class of 1999). For all the marks he's cleared, the records he leaped over, the accomplishments he's stacked up, Portillo remembers one in particular. More: 40 top El Paso performers at the 2026 UIL area track and field meets Like father, like son "I thought it was such an amazing feeling the first time I vaulted higher than my dad," he recalls of the moment as a junior when he beat his dad's 13-1.

"He was proud of me, but I was so proud to beat him. It was amazing. "When I broke his record it was excitement everywhere.

Honestly, from my dad's point of view, helping me become a better pole vaulter, it's amazing. " The moment certainly was a reminder of how Matthew got his start in the event. "For me and my wife (Jennifer), sports has always been a huge part of us, a way of growing into adulthood," Juan Portillo recalled.