RENO, NEVADA -For the first time in the 72-year history of the Miss USA pageant, a Waunakee woman will be representing Wisconsin in the annual national competition.
On Sunday, May 7, Alexis Maria Loomans, 21, was chosen as Miss Wisconsin-USA 2023 at the Performing Arts Center at Fond du Lac High School after besting 24 other women from around the state.
It was her first attempt at that state title, but her second time winning a state pageant title on that same stage in Fond du Lac.
On Sept. 10, 2017, Loomans, then-15, was selected as Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA 2018 and later competed in the 2018 Miss Teen-USA pageant held in Shreveport, Louisiana, but did not place in the national contest.
Loomans, of Waunakee, became the fifth former Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA to later win the Miss Wisconsin-USA crown, and she also became the first from Waunakee to be named Miss Wisconsin-USA and advance to the Miss USA pageant.
She will get a second chance at placing and perhaps even winning a national pageant title on Friday evening when she joins 50 other women in the 2023 Miss USA pageant. The 72nd Miss USA pageant will be staged at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. Singer and actress Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, and Keltie Knight, a Canadian television personality and author, will be joint-female pageant hosts of the show.
Miss USA 2022, Morgan Renee Romano of Concord, North Carolina, will crown her successor at the conclusion of the competition that airs on the CW network, from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday. Romano assumed the Miss USA title in January after then-Miss USA 2022, R’Bonney Nola Gabriel of Houston, Texas was named Miss Universe 2022 in New Orleans.
It was the first time the double state pageants were held in Fond du Lac since the 2020 state pageants in Sept. 2019. The following years they were held in Wisconsin Dells and Middleton. Other area entrants competing with Loomans in the 2023 Miss Wisconsin-USA pageant included Kasshay Jones of Waunakee, Gabby Aranda-Pino of Madison, and DeForest native Emma Suzanne Loney now of Sun Prairie, all who were among the 13 semi-finalists.
Also winning a state pageant title in May with Loomans, was Shelby Lynn Hohneke, 17, of Hudson, who won the Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA crown on her fourth attempt. Twenty teenagers competed for the state title. She will compete for Miss Teen-USA 2023 title on Thursday in Reno.
Last May, Loomans completed her junior year at UW-Madison where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science and government. She is a 2019 graduate of Waunakee High School where she was active with the tennis team; and is the daughter of Karen and Jeffrey B. Loomans, the owner of Waunakee Veterinary Service.
The first through fourth runners-up to Loomans, were respectively, Orland Park, Illinois native Miranda Fenzau, of Fontana; Wausau television reporter Jada Flury of Houston, Texas; Jessica Susan Hammer of Endeavor; and four-time finalist Jamie Fay Walloch of Evansville. The People’s Choice winner was Olivia Horvath of Silver Lake.
Source : Waunakee Tribune
