diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index cddd721429..1cbc661b72 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-dist: trusty
+dist: xenial
 language: java
 before_cache:
   - rm -f $HOME/.gradle/caches/modules-2/modules-2.lock
@@ -12,10 +12,18 @@ env:
     - RUN_BARCLAY_TESTS=true
     - RUN_BARCLAY_TESTS=false
 jdk:
-  - oraclejdk8
+  # oraclejdk8  - Xenial does not support oraclejdk8
   - openjdk8
   - openjdk11
 before_install:
+  #skip push builds if there's an associated PR because we don't look at them anway
+  - if [[ ${TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE} == push ]]; then
+      PULL_REQUESTS=$( scripts/travis/check_for_pull_request );
+      if [[ $( grep -c "commits" <<< ${PULL_REQUESTS} ) -gt 0 ]]; then
+        echo "WARNING TEST SKIPPED. TESTS DO NOT RUN ON BRANCHES WITH OPEN PULL REQUESTS. SEE PULL REQUEST FOR TEST RESULTS";
+        travis_terminate 0;
+      fi;
+    fi;
   - wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
   - sudo apt-get -qq update
   - sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends r-base-dev r-recommended qpdf
diff --git a/scripts/travis/check_for_pull_request b/scripts/travis/check_for_pull_request
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..da7ae7bbe0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/travis/check_for_pull_request
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+#query github for information about a specific pull request
+curl -v -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_API_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/repos/broadinstitute/picard/pulls\?state\=open\&head="broadinstitute:${TRAVIS_BRANCH}"