Good Morning, Omaha

OMAHA -- It was getting almost dull, almost sleepy in the mixed zone this morning. Could have been the rote quotes for the fifth straight morning ("I tried to take it a little easy") or the byproduct of eating the biggest breakfast in recent years (note to self: hold the side of pancakes next time).

Then Amanda Beard came through and stepped up to the microphone. Or tried to do so.

"What happened to this thing?" she said, examining the microphone, which towered above her head. "A boy backstroker?"

OK, on to the prelim swim. Beard, of UCLA's Team Bruin, had the third-fastest qualifying time in the 200-meter breaststroke, 2:26.86, trailing two of her former Trojan Swim club

teammates, Rebecca Soni (2:24.65) and Keri Hehn (2:25.93). Beard said she thought it was her fastest time at least in four years.

Beard wasn't sure what the trials would be like here after the successful run in Long Beach four years ago.

"I was a little hesitant about coming to Omaha ... they've packed the stands every night," Beard said. "It's phenomenal. My family is very shocked, they'd  never come to Nebraska, otherwise. So they're having a blast."

Naturally excited (or maybe it's her Red Bull endorsement) Beard was even more energized when she spoke about her club teammate and Omaha roommate. That would be Kim Vandenberg of UCLA, who made the Olympic team on Wednesday night, qualifying for the 400-freestyle relay by virtue of her fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle.

"It's cool to have a roommate like Kim because she couldn't sleep  last night," Beard said. "Cause she made the Olympic team and the girls decorated her the door and gave her a little book on Chinese. Stuff like that.

"It makes me really proud for her and makes me pumped and motivated because I want to be on the team with her. We've been having so much fun and I don't want the fun to stop."

-- Lisa Dillman

Photo: Amanda Beard at a news conference before the trials began.  Credit: Nati Harnik / Associated Press