Tyler Clary touched the wall, ripped off his goggles and whipped around to check out the scoreboard.
He liked what he saw: a ''2'' beside his name.
Clary rallied to finish second in the 200-meter butterfly Thursday night, earning a trip to his first Olympics. The result was even more satisfying given what happened on the first night of the U.S. swimming trials - a third-place finish in the 400 individual medley, which cost him a chance to swim his best event in London.
''You really have to experience it to understand it,'' Clary said. ''Imagine training for not just four years but for six, seven, sometimes eight years to make one Olympic team, and to come here and make everything come together in one week. It's like the biggest endorphin rush you could ever experience and the biggest explosion of serotonin in your head. I'm on cloud nine right now.''
What a change from Monday. Clary was a silver medalist in the 400 IM at last year's world championships, finishing behind only fellow American Ryan Lochte. Michael Phelps had given up the event, but he began swimming it again this year, looking to defend his back-to-back Olympic titles.
Lochte and Phelps went 1-2 at the trials, leaving Clary on the outside.
But he bounced back in the 200 fly, edging Bobby Bollier for the second spot. When Clary saw the result, he pumped his fist several times and pounded the water.
''I wasn't sensing anybody else really dropping off, so I was thinking to myself, `Am I even going to make the top three?''' he said. ''I came off the last wall, I pumped out some fast underwater kicks and I had made some ground up on a couple of the other guys and just noticed that once I started putting my head down, I was starting to gain and gain and gain on people. Hitting the wall, I wasn't sure I had gotten second. I thought I had gotten third and I looked up and it was just the biggest feeling of excitement.''
Now, Clary can relax a bit.
''I can focus on all the little things and I don't have that question in the back of my head or that thought in the back of my head like, `Can I make the team?''' he said.
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MOSES FAREWELL: Ed Moses came off the deck with a big smile, hardly looking like a former Olympic medalist who failed to advance out of the preliminaries at the U.S. swimming trials.
This, he felt, was a more fitting end to his swimming career.
The 32-year-old Moses headed back into retirement after finishing 18th in the preliminaries of the 200-meter breaststroke Thursday, closing out an improbable comeback that never really had a chance to take him all the way to London.
He had no regrets.
''It was a good way to end my career for sure,'' Moses said, standing in the mixed zone beneath the pool deck at the CenturyLink Center Omaha. ''Swimming is real big now. To say I was a part of it is going to be pretty cool. It was absolutely worth it.''
Moses also was eliminated in the prelims of the 100 breast, never even making it to the prime-time swims in the evening.
That wasn't the point. He was trying to make up for the disappointment of the 2004 trials, when he was the breaststroke favorite and didn't even make the team.
''I wanted to come back on a much, much better note,'' Moses said. ''You can appreciate it when you get a little older, what you did and what you had when you were younger. I'm walking away way better than I did in `04. That part I'm really excited about.''
He was only 20 when he captured a silver medal in the 100 breast and a gold in the 400 medley relay at the Sydney Games. Four years later, he was expecting an even better performance heading into the Olympic trials at Long Beach, Calif. He finished fourth in the 200 breast and sixth in the 100, prompting him to walk away from the sport in a huff.
''I left in `04 on a really bad note, being the double favorite in Long Beach and being the only person seeded first not to make the team,'' Moses said. ''That stung. That killed me. I love swimming so much and gave it my everything. Within a mere week, I hated it. That's not right. It gave me so much and to walk away like that, it was wrong. I was young, I was mad.''
When Moses began his comeback 18 months ago, he was intent on making the Olympic team. But he knew it wasn't going to happen before he got to Omaha.
''To be honest with you, the past month has been a little bit of a reality check,'' he said. ''But the longer I kept that window open, the better I was going to be. As soon as you start believing (you can't make it), you start cutting corners and stuff. The last month, I just go down swinging. I'm not going to not come here. I'm not going to say I'm sick or an injury or anything like that. I'm going to come here and bust what I've got for the past year and a half.''
It wasn't good enough. Now, he's heading back to the course to resume his quest for a golf career.
''I can do that until I'm 40 or 50,'' Moses said. ''You think I'd be breathing like this if I was playing golf?''
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FATHER TIME: Steve West finished 62nd in the 200-meter breaststroke preliminaries.
Just being in Omaha made him feel like a winner.
The 40-year-old West was the oldest male swimmer ever to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials, competing in both breaststroke events. He posted a time of 2 minutes, 19.47 seconds in the 200 breast, beating out 67 other swimmers - all younger than him.
''That one hurt, but I'm happy with it,'' West said. ''Anything under 2:20 is a good time when you're 40.''
West competed in three Olympic trials, nearly making the Olympic team in 1996. He finished third in the 200 breast, missing a spot by about a half-second.
While he's honored to be the oldest man ever to swim at the trials, it doesn't make up for what happened 16 years ago.
''I would rather have gone to the Olympics,'' he said with a smile.
His 9-year-old daughter held out hope that he might pull off a miracle this year.
''She told me, `Oh dad, you have to make the team so I can meet Michael Phelps,''' West said with a smile. ''She's a huge Michael Phelps fan.''
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SCOT WHO: The 100-meter freestyle is filled with Olympians, gold medalists and familiar names.
Scot Robison doesn't fall into any of those categories, but he's holding up just fine.
Robison was the top qualifier in the morning preliminaries and advanced to the final with the fifth-fastest time in the semifinals.
''If right now was the first time I had thought about it, I'd be in trouble,'' he said. ''But luckily, the past three or four years, I've been training knowing that all along. You just have to believe that you belong in that group.''
Robison hardly came out of nowhere. The 23-year-old sprinter from Charlotte, N.C., was on the U.S. team at last year's world championships in Shanghai, and earned a bronze medal as part of the 400 free relay after swimming in the morning prelims.
He competed in the World University Games in 2009, winning two gold medals as part of relays, but that is the extent of his international experience. If he can come up with one more big swim, he'll be headed to the biggest show of all - the Olympics.
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