Former T-Bird Pau Tonnesen tries for NCAA decathlon title after winning PAC-12

  EUGENE, Ore. - He won every NJCAA multi-event national championship possible, and now Pau Tonnesen will try for the next biggest prize, the NCAA title, at the national title meet June 10-13.

  The Mesa product captured the PAC-12 title for the University of Arizona in early May with a personal record 7,823 points and is currently ranked fifth in the nation.

  At MCC he won both the indoor and outdoor multi-event titles, the pentathlon indoors and decathlon outdoors, in both his freshman and sophomore years. It is believed he is the only athlete ever to accomplish the feat. To top things off, he won the pole vault national title both indoors and outdoors as a sophomore.

  Tonnesen's goal is to reach the Olympic qualifying standard of 8,075. That would allow him to attempt to reach the Olympics and he has a secondary option to reach that goal.

  His mother was born in Spain, which would allow him to try for that country's Olympic team.

  In order to reach the ultimate goal he is working hard on some of his weaker events. Always strong in the jumps, Tonnesen is putting extra emphasis on the 100-meter dash and 1,500-meter run. The latter is always the final event of the grueling, two-day, competition.

  His talents are not limited to track and field. He was an academic All-American award winner in the NJCAA in both his years at Mesa and a USFTCCCA Academic All-American in 2014.