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The Countryside Torpedoes hope to keep their current streak of top five finishes alive next week when they compete at the 2008 Long Course National Championships in College Park, Md.

The Torpedoes have placed in the top five nationally four consecutive years, with a high mark of second place last season. According to coach Brad Isham, a similar finish next week is not out of reach.

"The goal is to be in the top five again," Isham said. "I think we'll be pretty competitive. The relay races will be the key. If we do well in the relay races, we'll be in good shape."

The Torpedoes had 36 swimmers ages 13-18 meet the qualifying standard for nationals, a smaller number than the team has sent in recent years.

"It's a little smaller contingent, but numbers aren't as important at this meet," Isham said. "It's the quality, the top-end swimmers that score points at the national level."

The Torpedoes have quite a few of those top-end swimmers who qualified in multiple events and will also be the base of the team's relay squads.

Alex Smit, Breann McDowell, Anna Bersani, Steven Zimmerman, Jimmy Barbiere and Katelyn Ishee are all expected to be big point scorers for the Torpedoes.

"We're looking to those guys to lead us and carry us along," Isham said.

The Torpedoes warmed up for the nationals by running away with their eighth straight Southwest Ohio Cluster League championship this month. Countryside's team won by more than 1,500 points.

"The league championship was a lot of fun. The kids really came together and supported each other very well," Isham said. "It put us on a high note and set the tone with a lot of enthusiasm heading into nationals."

At the league championships, Torpedo Christian Josephson set a new league record in the 13-14 boys 50 butterfly with a time of 27.70 seconds. In addition, Cesar Carrillo set two new team records in the boys 11-12 100 butterfly (1:10.67) and the 11-12 100 freestyle (1:02.86).

Jimmy Barbiere led the Torpedoes in multiple individual championships with four at the league meet. Josephson had three, while Carrillo, Ian Wooley, Ryan Spiker, Alex Smit, Steven Zimmerman, Breann McDowell and Sara Liang all won two individual titles apiece. Other individual league champions for the Torpedoes were Allison Bloebaum, Justin Davidson, Luis Carrillo, Peter Wagner, Jake Stylski and Aaron Lawson.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.