OGDEN, Utah - Senior Nick Trubachik may have punched a ticket to the NCAA Championships as he captured the Big Sky Championship in the decathlon scoring  7,390 points. Classmate Vince Kinney finished right behind Trubachik to claim silver with 6,848 points. It is the first ever 1-2 finish in the decathlon by Portland State at the Big Sky Championship. Sophomore Joenisha Vinson rounded out the multi's as she finished fourth in the heptathlon.

After winning four of his first five events, Trubachik continued his pace as finished his last five events in second, second, fifth, first and eighth.

He recorded a personal-best 14.97 in the 110-meter hurdles and followed that with a 130-11.25 heave in the discus, finishing second in both events. Trubachik cleared 13-11.25 in the pole vault and went on to win the javelin by more than 21 feet with a 198-9.50 throw.

In the last event, the 1,500-meters, often referred to as a race of pure guts and determination, Trubachik finished in eighth place with a time of 4:57.85. His season best in the 1,500-meters was 4:45.33.

He is currently ranked 15th in the NCAA with his score of 7,390 points. The top-22 decathletes in the country will advance to this year's NCAA Championships in Eugene June 7-12 at Hayward Field.

Should he qualify, Trubachik would become the first male to compete at the NCAA Track & Field Championships since Portland State joined Division I in 1997. Last season Jernise Saunders was the first PSU sprinter to compete at the NCAA Championships in that same time frame.

Kinney opened the day in second and quickly found himself in fourth after the 110-meter hurdles, but the head strong senior bounced back in the discus with a throw of 124-6.5 to finish third in the event. Still in fourth entering the pole vault, the Lynwood, Wash., native tied with Trubachik in the event, 13-11.25, to regain third-place.

Following his fifth place finish in the javelin with a distance of 163-9.25, Kinney captured second-place and never looked back. He finished fourth in the 1,500-meters with a time of 4:42.43 to claim silver and finish with 6,848 points, 11 points better than his previous-best in 2008.

On the women's side of the multi-events, Vinson scored a career-best 5,019, beating her previous best by 294 points in the heptathlon.

While she finished fourth in the competition, Vinson still turned in three career-marks in the long jump, javelin and 800-meters.  She started the day with an 18-7.25 jump to hoist herself to seventh all-time at Portland State from eighth. She followed up with a  throw of 104-9, an improvement of over 41 foot. Her previous best was 63-2.

Finally in the 800-meters, Vinson outperformed her previous best at the indoor championships, 2:35.57, by running a 2:30.00.

Vinson finished third in the pentathlon at the Big Sky Indoor Championships back in February. She will get a chance to stand on the medal stand again as she will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump, high jump, and both relay teams.

The men's team currently sits atop the Big Sky standings with 18 combined points, leading second-place Sacramento State by 12 points. The women currently sit in fourth-place.

The rest of the track and field events start tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. Follow live results event-by-event on GoViks.com

NOTES:
This is Trubachik's second gold medal in the event, winning it as a sophomore (7,058 points) ... The last athlete to compete in the NCAA Championships was all-america decathlete Ron Foster in 1995; he finished in third with a score of 7,120 points ... In 1996, Dave Island and Andy Maris were the last PSU athletes to compete at NCAA Track & Field Championships ... The following conferences championships are taking place this weekend: WAC, SEC, MAC, Missouri Valley, Big-10, Atlantic-10 ... This is the third-time Trubachik has broken the school record ... Vinson's improvement in the javelin can probably be attributed to her change in throwing hand as she switched from left to right before the meet on Tuesday.