Chrishtianna (Chrish) Newell, a 2012 Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé graduate, always had a particular strong point in sports since her Crimson Bears soccer days, which is now perfected into the competitive world of obstacle endurance contests of Spartan Deka and HYROX.
“Functional strength and mental toughness,” Newell said of her new love for HYROX endurance and strength competitions. “I’m not the fastest runner, but I can suffer with the best of them, and that’s a huge asset in this sport. Plus, I’m used to training through setbacks, so I know how to keep showing up.”
Newell, and partner Jess Contreras, will be showing up at the HYROX World Championships in Chicago, Illinois, June 12-15 at Navy Pier. The duo are competing in the Pro Doubles Women’s 30-39 age group country wise email marketing list after they finished first out of 850 teams to qualify for the World Championships in Atlanta last month. Only the top team moved on.
“We race on the 15th,” Newell said. “My competition partner I met when I first moved to Portland in 2019 and became good friends with. We’ve been competing against each other for a while. She’s a strong runner and I have some more strength so we balance each other out well.”
Newell, currently on the Dean’s List at Oregon State University — Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Candidate, Class of 2027, International Veterinary Student Association Junior Rep — is also balancing her second year of veterinary school around her competitions and is in the middle of finals while still training for the Worlds. She had a final scheduled research and development in green for Friday the 13th, the day she is flying into Chicago but her professor is allowing her to take the final early so she can make it to the race.
“We race on the 15th and I’ll also be judging the event
the entire weekend as well,” Newell said. “I luckily got one of my finals moved to take earlier so I could fly there, and then I have an online final Friday that I’ll have to take in between judging taiwan lists and prepping for my race.”
To get to this point Newell played four years of soccer at Oregon Institute Of Technology and five years of study, finishing undergrad work in 2017. She then started veterinary school at Oregon State University in 2023 and will graduate in 2027.