Five years ago, Melanie Margalis became the first area swimmer, male or female, to make the U.S. Olympic team since 2004. 

The former Countryside standout continued to shine on the sport’s biggest stage, winning a gold medal in the 4×200 freestyle relay and placing fourth in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.. 

On Sunday, Margalis narrowly missed out on another trip in the first of her three events at the U.S. Olympic Trials. 

The versatile swimmer took third in the 400 IM in 4 minutes, 34.08 seconds, finishing behind Emma Weyant (4:33.81), who earned the top qualifying spot, and Hali Flickinger (4:33.96). 

Margalis entered the trials with the top seed in the 400 IM and placed third in the event in Sunday’s preliminaries. In the final, she was in fifth place before surging into the lead after making up ground in the breaststroke. 

Heading into the homestretch, Margalis still was ahead but fell behind the final 25 meters of the freestyle, the final stroke. 

Margalis still is within range of making the team in the 200 IM. She is seeded third in the event, which takes place later this week. 

Another former Countryside star came awfully close to making the team in the 400 IM. 

Bobby Finke, currently the nation’s premier distance swimmer, finished fourth in 4 minutes, 11.44 seconds.

This was not Finke’s signature event. He entered the trials as the fifth seed in the 400 IM and took fourth in the preliminaries on Sunday.

Finke, though, is far from finished.   

He has solid shots to make the Olympics in two other events with top seeds in the 800 free (7:47.58) and the 1500 free (14:51.15), which take place later this week.