GREEN RIVER – Rock Springs continued to chase top honors at the 4A West Regional Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Tiger Preston Portillo finished a strong tournament winning four titles on the weekend.
Behind Portillo’s titles, the Rock Springs Tigers finished the championships in the third spot. Kelly Walsh was strong all weekend and took the title scoring 184 points. The Tigers just missed second place as the Natrona Mustangs were able to edge them out, 125 to 122.50. Riverton, Evanston and Green River rounded out the finishes in that order.
After having a strong Friday, Preston Portillo returned to the track on Saturday hunting more regional gold in the 1600. He already had the 800 meters and 3200 meters gold around his neck. Portillo posted a time of 4:33.05 taking the title by three seconds over Nick Robinson of Kelly Walsh.
Several other Tigers had strong finishes in the 1600. Parker Jones crossed in sixth followed by Joe Depoyster in seventh and Clay Goich in eighth.
Portillo would also be part of the other regional championship on Saturday. Portillo, Depoyster, Goich and Jones posted a time of 8:14.29 to take the 4×800 relay title. Natrona finished second crossing in 8:15.31.
Two Tigers lined up in the 110-meter hurdles finals. Trent Rasmussen qualified in second and just missed a title. His time of 15.61 was just behind the top time of 15.31 posted by Caige McComb of Kelly Walsh. Erick Salcido finished in the seventh position.
Rasmussen and Salcido also qualified for the 300-meter finals with Rasmussen posting the second-quickest time on Friday. On Saturday, his time of 42.05 put him in third overall. Salcido finished in the eighth spot.
After a strong fifth-place finish in the discus on Friday, Dylen Turcto finished second on Saturday in the shot put as his throw of 46-09.00 just missed a title. Hunter Spartz of Green River would throw 46-11.75 to take first. Three Tigers just missed top tens in the shot. Isaac Huffman finished 12th followed by Victor Pampuch in 13th and Dominik McKeever in 14th.
Rock Springs had several other strong finishes on Saturday. Breden Lapp ran for a regional title in the 400 meters on Saturday. Lapp finished in the eighth position. The 4×400 relay team of Marcus Kalista, Brenden Lapp, Trent Rasmussen and Call Butterfield finished in sixth.
The Tigers had two top-ten finishes in the triple jump on Saturday. After finishing second in the pole vault and Friday, Kell Ransom led the Tigers with a fifth-place finish. Oaklan Jenkins finished in ninth.
In the high jump, Tiger Hunter Hanson grabbed a top-ten finish coming in ninth. Ransom jumped to a 14th-place finish tying with teammate Derek Lionberger.
