LoConte, who played soccer and softball and ran winter track for the Hornets, winning 12 varsity letters, admits she may be a little lost with a lighter schedule but she knows it's the right thing to do.
"I've got to focus on my major first and see how it goes," LoConte said. "I'm not going to play anything right away at Virginia Tech. I think I'll miss sports. If I have extra time, maybe I'll pick up something."
Her softball coach, Kristen Hogan, can't imagine the high-energy, team-oriented LoConte sitting still for long. Hogan loves how LoConte goes all out, all the time.
"Christina is such a great athlete," Hogan said. "She works so, so hard at everything. In softball, she's very disciplined. She's a great center fielder. She's one of the best kids I've ever come across. Christina's got a lot of energy and always steps up. She's a team player and doesn't care about stats. All she wants to do is help the teams she's on win."
Softball is her favorite sport, although she says soccer once was. In the first game as a senior, she rapped out the 100th hit of her career. LoConte, a co-captain, finished with 53 hits and boasted a .550 batting average for Hanover Park, which claimed its first sectional championship since 1980.
A slap hitter, she batted atop the Hornets' order and scored 34 runs this spring. In the field, LoConte was nearly flawless, making only one error in center field.
Her junior season was stellar as well. LoConte had 38 hits, batted .521, scored 27 times and knocked in 12 runs.
"I like being a slapper and being up first," she said. "I usually can do whatever I want. For my first at-bat, I can slap or hit away. There's no runners on so it's up to me."
Attaining more than 100 hits was special to LoConte, a midfielder when playing soccer.
"I had no statistics really as a defender in soccer," she said. "Track is different, too. Getting 100 hits meant a lot. I had several different softball coaches so there were different books. I didn't know that I was going into my senior year with 99 hits then we figured it out."
The 18-year-old LoConte initially took on winter track to stay in shape for softball and soccer and "to keep busy." Her events were the 55 and 200 meters. She never really expected much but her highly competitive nature enabled her to take fifth place in the 55 meters at the Morris County Championships as a senior.
"I tried really, really hard and was able to cut down my times," LoConte said.
What made her stick with three sports?
"I just wanted to keep going on," she said. "Life does get busy and some people skip some sports but I like it. I balanced everything but it did get crazy. I ran myself to no end."
Hogan admires her for it, noting that not many student-athletes could keep pace with LoConte.
"Christina keeps going and going," Hogan said. "She's a terrific girl and gets it all done. Anything that comes to her, she deserves."
