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Hold onto your swimsuit. UNM has a water polo team.

Not affiliated with the NCAA, the team competes within the College Water Polo Association.

Team member and water zealot Kristin Loker started getting soggy fingers when she was 7.

Her parents asked if she'd like to swim.

"I stuck with it," she said. "It gave me something to motivate myself."

As if she needed it.

"I try to push myself in everything," she said.

Loker, 19, plunged into the sport. When she wasn't practicing or competing, she was in the pool anyway.

She was member of the Duke City Aquatic Team as a long-distance swimmer. She graduated from Manzano High School in 2004.

After years of 5-6:30 a.m. practice, five days a week, then school, then 4-6 p.m. practice, she was burned out. She skipped morning practice her junior year.

She stepped back onto the blocks the next year.

She admits to working out at a gym every day, playing tennis and running - for fun.

At UNM, she's pursuing a nursing career, hoping to become a nurse practitioner.

"I'm really interested in the well-being of people."

She means other people. Her well-being is pretty much on track.

To earn extra money for college, Loker teaches water exercise classes at Los Altos pool in northeast Albuquerque.

At classes, she doesn't stand at poolside and shout commands for an hour. Loker slides into the water. Everything they do, she does.

More women than men take the class. The water stresses the body less than on-the-floor, low-impact workouts.

But don't think it's easy. You can't always see the sweat, but you can hear the increased breathing - and as the class goes on, the women talk less and less.

Loker reminds them to push themselves, to keep trying, to keep going.

After she's finished at the pool, she heads off to UNM.

Then she sails into preschool. At Kids Under Construction, Loker works in day care for 2- to 5-year-olds.

She reads to them and joins in art activities.

"I love little kids," she said. "It's a good break from adult life."

Does she have them doing jumping jacks and knee crunches by the end of their day?

Absolutely not.

"I love coloring," Loker said.

She gets down to their level - lying on the floor is no problem for her dexterous body - and digs into the crayons, chooses a color and spreads wax across paper, laughing with the children when they get silly.

What a life.

She looks great, feels good and plays well with others - from age 2 to 92.

Jonas hasn't had fingers like prunes since she got a dishwasher.