Loomans places in top five at Miss USA

Hawkeye Pageants Oct 2, 2023 

Alexis Loomans appeared in Miss USA semi-final swimsuit and evening gown competitions, Sept. 29 in Reno, Nevada.

RENO, NEVADA-It only took 49 years for a Wisconsin entrant to place among the top five of the Miss USA pageant, but a Waunakee woman has earned that success last Friday evening.

The reigning Miss Wisconsin-USA 2023 in the person of Alexis Maria Loomans made history as the first Wisconsin contestant to place among the five finalists since 1974 when she competed in the 2023 Miss USA pageant held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada on Sept 29.

At the start of the 72nd annual Miss USA pageant, Loomans was announced 18th out of 20 semi-finalists, just before Miss Maryland-USA, Savena Mushinge, 26, of Germantown, and Miss New Mexico-USA, Bianca Wright, 28, of Anthony, who won the People's Choice award for a semi-finalist.

The 20 semi-finalists then competed in swimwear and evening gown prior to the dramatic jump to the five finalists. In recent years, most often the 16 semi-finalists would be reduced to ten or eight finalists before the top five.

Loomans, a UW-Madison senior pursuing bachelor's degrees in political science and government, appeared in the same designer two-piece silver swimsuit as the other 19 women before appearing on stage in evening gown.

Loomans chose a simple silver beaded halter-style designer flock with front left leg slit to her crotch, with jeweled neckline and plunging black bodice.

During the second half of the two-hour pageant telecast on the CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. tv network, known as CW, Loomans was called as the first of the five finalists, a far cry from the very suspectful conclusion of the semi-finalists announcements an hour earlier.

At the start of the on-stage final question, first-time pageant telecast co-host Keltie Knight asked Loomans, who turned 21 in March, how she was feeling at that moment.

"Honestly, I have not been nervous this whole competition because I have been so excited and prepared. And coming from a small town in Wisconsin to being on the Miss USA stage, I am glad that I can set an example for others to do thesame".

Then came the final question when Loomans was asked "As the brand ambassador for Miss USA, what will be your contribution to the organization?” to which Loomans responded "My contribution to the organization will be proving that anyone can define age limiting opportunities. As one of the youngest contestants here, I have paved the way for myself from being 15 years old and starting my platform Catwalk For A Cause, towards now, being successful in the industry." adding "pageantry creates a foundation not just to implement change but to do it yourself and I have been able to do that."

After the final question and a test of poise, Loomans, the tallest among the final five and standing next to eventual fourth runner-up Miss Texas-USA, Lluvia Camila Alzate, was selected as the second runner-up. It was the highest ranking of a Wisconsin contestant in a Miss USA pageant in 49 years.

No state entrant has placed in the final five since Miss Wisconsin-USA 1974, Mary Lynn Cook of Wind Lake also earned a second runner-up accolade, when the 1974 Miss USA pageant was staged in Niagara Falls, New York. Coincidentally, just like Loomans, Cook was a UW-Madison student at the time she competed for Miss USA. The brunette beauty from Racine County studied interior design and would later marry future Milwaukee area state senator Gary R. George. He would become the franchise holder of Miss Wisconsin-USA from 1982 until his ouster in June of 1991. Mary never had a role in the state pageant during the time her then-husband operated the Miss USA preliminary.

Winning the 1974 Miss USA pageant, was Miss Illinois-USA, Karen Jean Morrison of St. Charles, Illinois, who was also a UW-Madison student.

Selected as Miss USA 2023 by the five-member panel of judges last Friday was Sarasota, Florida native Noelia Victoria Voigt Briceño, 23, now of Park City, Utah, who competed as Miss Utah-USA, a title she won last April only three months after she was named first runner-up in the 2023 Miss Alabama-USA contest.

Voigt, who attended the University of Alabama for interior design studies, will now advance to the 2023 Miss Universe pageant on Nov. 18 in El Salvador, a Central American nation that last hosted the international contest in 1975.

Of the 51 national pageant entrants, nine of the state titleholders were former Miss Teen USA state winners, including Loomans, who was Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA 2018 but did not place in the Miss Teen-USA pageant that year.

Loomans, a 2019 Waunakee High School graduate, won the Miss Wisconsin-USA title on her first attempt on May 7 in Fond du Lac, at the same pageant show that Shelby Lynn Hohneke, 19, of Hudson, won the Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA crown on her fourth attempt.

Hohneke also found success in Reno. She was among the twenty semi-finalists but did not place in the final five of the 2023 Miss Teen-USA pageant which was won by Miss New Jersey Teen-USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, 16, the first teenager from her state to win the national teen pageant.

Loomans, the daughter of Karen and Jeffrey B. Loomans, Waunakee, will now continue to serve as Miss Wisconsin-USA 2023 until the 2024 state pageant next May.

Additionally, Loomans will continue to promote her program, Children's Catwalk for a Cause, which helps children to conquer tough times, as well as working with Kids Helping Kids, a charity operation through the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison.

Several pageant fans cheering for Loomans in the Miss USA pageant thought perhaps Wisconsin would get a second national pageant winner for 2023 had Loomans been selected as Miss USA. The current reigning Miss America 2023 is Grace Marie Stanke of Wausau who won the Miss Wisconsin title last year in Oshkosh prior to becoming Wisconsin's third Miss America winner last December in Connecticut.

Coincidentally, Stanke is also a UW-Madison student, a senior majoring in nuclear engineering. It would have been the first time since 1994 when both the reigning Miss America and Miss USA each hailed from the same state. But for now, Waunakee can claim the honors of an almost-Miss USA in 2023 with Loomans now holding the tied record of the highest ranked Wisconsin contestant in the Miss USA pageant.

https://www.hngnews.com/waunakee_tribune/community/arts_and_entertainment/loomans-places-in-top-five-at-miss-usa/article_18475ff6-613f-11ee-9283-9b2baa2e13b8.html