Bonnie Brandon of MACS-Mission Aurora Colorado Swimming surprised herself and a cheering crowd in Omaha on July 4 as she beat the odds and won her heat in the 200 meter backstroke at the 2008 Olympic Team Trials.

By knocking over three seconds off her previous best time to post a 2:13.12 swim, the 14-year-old Centennial resident qualified to swim in the semi-finals later in the day with the top 16 finalists. Although she added .3 seconds in her semi-finals race to finish 14 th overall, Brandon was excited to be swimming with the top backstrokers in the nation.

"The trials were amazing! It was exciting to see the Olympians although I didn't talk to any of them. Michael Phelps got into my warm down lane as soon as I got out and I followed Ryan Lochte almost to the locker room. We ran into Brendan Hansen our first night at dinner," said Brandon.

Brandon said that the most nerve-racking thing that happened right before the semi-finals race was that one of the other swimmers in her heat ripped her high-tech LZR suit and had to find another. Brandon said, "They were able to get her in her suit in 6 minutes instead of the usual 20 minutes."

Brandon is MACS 6th swimmer to qualify for the Olympic Swim Trials. One of her former MACS teammates, Jessica Rodriquez, was also at the trials and finished 6th in the 400 freestyle and 14 th in the 200 freestyle. According to MACS head coach Andy Niemann, "The Olympic Trials were really quite the show this year. I was so impressed with how Bonnie handled herself under the pressure. Seems like the cheering crowd, JumboTron, and lights didn't even phase her," said Niemann. "It was also great to see Jess do so well at trials," commented Niemann. "It's inspiring for our younger MACS swimmers to see that dreaming big and hard work can help them accomplish some amazing things."

For more information about the sport of swimming or MACS swim team, visit www.macsswim.com or call (303) 690-7100.