"It Would Definitely Be Hard To Say Bye To Gymnastics"
Christina - who goes by "Teeny" to friends and family - fell in love with her first sport, gymnastics, in preschool.
She currently competes for Billings Gymnastics School as a Level 9, which is the second-highest level in Junior Olympics. She will continue to compete in both track and gymnastics as a senior, when she hopes to advance to Level 10.
"I think I'm probably gonna run in college, because I think I'll have more opportunities for that," she said. "I don't know. It would definitely be hard to say bye to gymnastics."
Her father, Chuck, opines that gymnastics is one secret to Teeny's success on the track.
"Because of that, she has always been a little precocious in regards to her development," he said. "She has incredible core strength and her physique is much more developed than her sisters because of the hours in the gymnasium and that plays into the whole running game. Physically, she's very strong."
She competes in the all-around, though her favorite event is the uneven bars.
Hectic weekdays involve the typical early wake-up and full day of classes at her high school, followed by track practice from 3:20 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. She has 5:30 p.m. gymnastics practice four days per week - "sometimes five" - which runs until 8:30 p.m.
Gymnastics practice always begins or ends with 30 to 45 minutes of conditioning exercises, featuring some assortment of push-ups, pull-ups, abs and bar dips in a circuit routine. Each day, the group will practice three of the four events. Mondays usually begin with the uneven bars and Wednesdays begin with the vault, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are devoted to floor routines.
Aragon usually returns home at around 9 p.m.
How does she get through it all?
"I definitely eat a lot of snacks on the way," she said. "Usually just granola bars. And I really like those little cheese or apples and oranges."
(Photos courtesy of Chuck Aragon)
Getting in the gym is tough after a hard track workout, when she says her stomach usually bothers her, and especially after a tough cross country effort. But ultimately, the two sports complement each other.
"The conditionings things we do is about lifting your own body weight and building lean muscle," she said. "It's nice to have something to go to and you have to condition. It's hard when you run and you're like, 'you have to go to the gym.' It's a lot harder to make yourself do a workout after you run. At gymnastics, it makes it a lot easier."
