GULF SHORES, Ala. - Nursing a sore lower back that he tweaked on his first throw of the competition, Zeb Hoffman nonetheless became The Evergreen State College's first track & field national champion when he won the men's hammer throw title on Thursday's first day of the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships being held at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.

Hoffman, a 36-year-old junior who returned to the college this year to finish an undergraduate degree program he started half-a-lifetime ago, took the lead with his first throw in the preliminaries, and then improved on that mark in the final round, heaving the 16-pound ball 60.28 meters (197-9 1/2), to earn the national championship. Concordia (Neb.) senior Joshua Slechta threw 59.21 meters (194-3 1/4) on his final effort to place second.

Hoffman entered the competition with a NAIA-leading mark of 64.84 meters (212-9), followed by Slechta at 64.27 meters (210-10). While the sore back affected his performance today, it didn't keep him from taking the top step on the awards podium.

"I would have liked to have thrown further, but that's the nature of the sport, you always want to throw farther," Hoffman said. "I'm happy that I won. I knew it was going to be me and bunch of dudes from Concordia, which it was. So every time one of them went up (to throw) I was like, okay, here goes the lead. When the last guy was done and I had my final throw, I knew I had it, so it was a nice relief.

In fact, Concordia throwers placed second, third, fourth and sixth in the competition, but they all trailed the Geoducks' Hoffman. 

Evergreen's other national meet participant, senior Irene Moore, had a first-day personal best in the heptathlon with 2,532 points and sits in 12th place. Moore's day included a heptathlon PR with a time of 15.56 and 769 points in the 100-meter hurdles, a shot put personal best of 9.17 meters (30-1 1/4) and 475 points, and a new school record time of 26.24, which earned her 776 points, in the 200-meter dash. She was under her best in the high jump, going to her third attempt before clearing 1.40 meters (4-7), for 512 points.

Ahead for Moore on Friday are the long jump, javelin and 800-meter run, with the first and last of those being among Moore's strongest heptathlon events.

Following the conclusion of the heptathlon's first day, Moore stepped to the start line in the 400-meter hurdles and clocked 1:03.14, missing Saturday's final in that event by .39 seconds.