Michael Andrew reacts after winning his preliminary heat in the men's 100-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, Sunday, June 26, 2016, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Michael Andrew went to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., last week with an open mind.

He knew people weren’t expecting him to make the Olympic roster, so all he could do was swim his fastest and hope for the best.

The result? The 17-year-old Andrew proved himself on one of the biggest stages.

Andrew, who lives in Lawrence and is home-schooled, made it to the finals (top eight) in two of his five events at the Trials. He finished fourth in the 100-meter breaststroke, missing a spot on the Olympic team by 0.56 seconds.

He advanced to the finals in the 200 individual medley before scratching out of the event, which featured legendary swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

“I’ve been a professional swimmer since I was 14, and I feel like a lot people took me seriously but not on that same level of the Olympians and the world class,” said Andrew, who was the youngest pro swimmer in American history. “It was kind of nice after that, they were like, ‘Michael is an elite swimmer now.’ That was nice. It’s not that I look for that approval from man, but it’s kind of nice to see that and they are starting to recognize it.”

For the past several years, Andrew has been regarded as one of the top up-and-coming swimmers in the country. Three times last week he broke the world junior record in the 100 breast, and he tied another record in the 200 IM. He owns countless national age-group records.

But last week he showed off his potential, despite not making the team. Competing in the Trials for the first time, he shaved time and swam past older swimmers.

“It’s crazy because I wasn’t really trained for the 200 at all. Really just the 100 breast,” Andrew said. “It was a meet where I didn’t have any expectations. No one thought I was going to make the team, so I was able to race free and just do what I love to do, which is swim. It turned out really well.”

Less than a week after his final swim at the Trials, he’s already back in the pool. Andrew cruised to an easy victory in the 200 butterfly on Saturday at the Lawrence Aquahawks’ Wave the Wheat swim meet at Indoor Aquatic Center. He’s set to compete in the 200 breast and 200 back this afternoon.

After his swim, he was approached by several wide-eyed children, signing autographs on their programs and leaving them with big smiles.

Andrew watched the Trials in 2008 and remembers what it was like as a fan. Now that he was one of the swimmers at the mega-meet, it was a completely different experience.

“It was incredible,” Andrew said. “I’ve been to a lot of big meets in my day, but the Trials is like no other. Really, the setup was incredible. The people, the stage, the lights, everything … it was just amazing. If they could run meets like that all the time, it would just be nuts.”

Andrew didn’t earn a trip to Rio, but he will stick with a busy schedule. He will swim in the U.S. Open and junior nationals next month in Minneapolis before competing in the FINA Swimming World Cup in Berlin, Paris and Moscow.

Of course, he wishes he had another chance to swim for a spot in the Olympics before 2020 — “It’s the pinnacle of sport,” he said — but constant swimming is one of his new training goals.

“We’ll be doing a lot of traveling and a lot of racing,” Andrew said. “I think that was one problem in the past, we thought we needed to train now to get faster. But when I was little, we’d just race every weekend. We need to go back to racing because that is my training. I get better when I just race.”