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Christina Fenske (Stuarts Draft, Va./Stuarts Draft) and
Manika Gamble (Jacksonville, N.C./Jacksonville ) capped off High Point University's women's track & field season at the first round of the NCAA Championship on Thursday at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C.
Fenske cleared 1.69 meters (5-6.5) in the high jump to finish tied for 29th. She cleared 1.64 meters (5-4.5) and 1.69 meters on her first attempts at each height before missing three times at 1.74 meters (5-8.5). Fenske was runner-up in the high jump at the Big South Championship and cleared a career-best 1.78 meters (5-10) at the N.C. A&T Aggie Classic on May 16.
"Christina was moving well today and had two good attempts at 1.74, which was the gateway to her great performance here two weeks ago. She just had a little bit more luck last time," said HPU assistant coach Eric Dudley. "Overall she made some good improvements throughout this season. She's bridging the gap between being a good conference athlete and an elite national athlete."
Gamble finished 39th in a time of 1:00.92 in the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles and missed qualifying for the quarterfinals. She needed to finish in the top 24 to move on to Friday's competition. Gamble was far off her best time of 58.56, which she ran in April at the Pepsi Florida Relays. She was Big South champion in the 400-meter hurdles and runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles.
"Manika got out aggressively but it just wasn't her day," said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. "We're really disappointed for her. She certainly did everything to prepare for this but just didn't run well today. If she ran what she was capable of, she would have advanced to the quarterfinals."
The meet concludes HPU's women's track & field season. The Panthers finished fifth at the Big South Championship and saw HPU outdoor records fall in four events.