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Loupot yearns to be a District 13-5A champion.
The A&M Consolidated junior is a member of the Tiger swimming team that will face Bryan in the Crosstown Showdown at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium. Loupot also is an honor student, an equestrian, a violinist in the school orchestra and a national champion in the tetrathlon who could some day compete for an Olympic berth in the pentathlon.
The pentathlon, which includes competition in swimming, equestrian, running, shooting and fencing, seems like a perfect fit for Loupot. It helps that the 16-year-old has been swimming and riding horses since she was a kid, but beyond that is Loupot's penchant for multi-tasking.
Loupot stays so busy that Consol swimming coach Ryan Goodwyn sometimes wants to tell her to slow down.
"I enjoy everything I do so much that if I were to have to cut down, I don't know what I would cut," Loupot said. "Swimming is so important to me, and this team is so close. My horseback riding, I find so much joy with that. School comes first all the time. It's really important to do well in school for my future."
Loupot finished second in the 50-yard freestyle at last year's district meet, and she's a two-time regional qualifier. She won her age group's national championship in United States Pony Club tetrathlon, which includes all of the pentathlon sports except for fencing. She excels in the classroom, ranking 16th in her class of about 600 with a 4.3 grade point average.
"She is one of the busiest kids I've ever met, almost to a fault," Goodwyn said. "She's very driven. I had her as a student, and I saw it there, too. She doesn't just want the A, she wants the 100. She doesn't want us to just swim well, she wants us to win."
The Consol girls team has finished third at the 13-5A meet in each of the last two years, and Loupot is focused on helping her team earn the title this season. Loupot and senior Katie Solcher were chosen as team captains by their teammates.
"This team is awesome," Loupot said. "I love the potential we have. We're about to take off and be one of the top teams in the state."
Because of her varied interests, Loupot didn't begin training year-around as a swimmer until her freshman year. She swam on two relay teams that qualified for regionals and also made regionals by finishing fifth in the 50 freestyle.
Last year, Loupot qualified for regionals by taking second in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 freestyle. She also swam on two relay teams that finished third to advance.
"Last year was kind of a break-out year for her," Goodwyn said. "I think it was her first year to start to believe that she could be as good as I think she can be. I've always seen that she has the potential. She's very strong. She's always been athletic in a lot of things beyond swimming."
Although Loupot began to devote more time to swimming, she didn't give up her other interests. She just squeezed more into her busy day, even welcoming the Tiger team practice being moved from the afternoon to before classes this year because it allows more time to polish her equestrian skills.
Swimming practice begins at 6 a.m., and most of the Tigers can work out until 8 because they have athletics during the first class period. Loupot has to leave at 7:30 because her first-period class is advanced placement chemistry.
Loupot hopes to major in engineering at college, preparing for a career that will be chemistry-oriented and perhaps involve developing medical technology. She does not plan on swimming for a college team, although Loupot will continue to swim and ride, and maybe make the transition from the tetrathlon to the pentathlon with hopes of competing on an international level.
"All my sports are really hobbies to keep myself fit," Loupot said. "Pentathlon and swimming are life-long sports. Most of the Olympic pentathletes are in their 30s and 40s. I'll see where life takes me."
NOTES -- Loupot also is a member of Consolidated's Interact Student Council, which is a service organization. She also has sung in her church choir. ... If Loupot decides to compete in the pentathlon by adding fencing, she believes she will have a little bit of a head start on the new sport because she has taken karate.
• Larry Bowen's e-mail address is larry.bowen@theeagle.com.
