STANFORD - Tom Pappas broke Dan O’Brien’s championship record and vaulted to #2 on the all-time list Sunday in the decathlon at the 2003 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Verizon.

Pappas finished with 8,784 to crush his personal best of 8,585; beat O’Brien’s meet record of 8,726 from 1996; win his third U.S. title; and vault past Bruce Jenner (8,634), Steve Fritz (8,644), Chris Huffins (8,694) and Dave Johnson (8727) as the top-scoring American decathletes in history.

Pappas opened Day 2 of the decathlon with a time of 14.13 in the 110m hurdles for 958 points, then followed with a discus throw of 45.84m/150-5 (784 pts).

Pappas then tied his pole vault personal best with a clearance of 5.20m/17-0.75 to score 972. He threw 60.04m/199-4 to score 749 points in the discus, setting up an intriguing final event in the 1,500 meters.

Pappas needed a time of 4:57 to break O’Brien’s meet record. He more than delivered, with a time of 4:48.12, scoring 630 points and giving him more than enough to make history.

He wasn’t alone in his successes, however. Bryan Clay had a career day as well, beating his personal best by 200 points by scoring 8,482 and making him the #3 decathlete in the world so far this year. Paul Terek placed third with a big personal best of 8,275.

For full results, visit the Outdoor Championships section of the USATF Web site, www.usatf.org