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Photo by Mary Kumbier
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Dexter's Stephen Sobczak placed 11th in the 100 backstroke at last weekend's Division 2 swimming and diving state meet at Eastern Michigan University.
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Dexter's boys' swimming and diving team competed at the Division 2 state meet last Friday and Saturday. The Dreadnaughts swam to a 10th-place finish. The meet, held at Eastern Michigan University, drew 43 teams from across the state.
Battle Creek Lakeview tallied 293 points to earn the state title, edging out Zeeland with 290 points. Zeeland was followed by Holland (248 points) and Birmingham Seaholm (206 points) to round out the top four. Completing the top 10 were Birmingham Groves (163 points), Rochester (148 points), Walled Lake Northern (132 points), Midland Dow (122 points), Jenison (98 points), and Dexter (96 points).
The Division 2 meet was the fastest of the state's three divisions. The Division 2 champions had faster times than the Division 1 title-winners in eight of the 12 events. When matched against Division 3, Division 2 champions were faster in 11 out of 12 events.
The Dreadnaughts earned their points with three top eight and four consolation (second eight) finishes. The top 16 places in each event score points and the top eight of those places earn All-State recognition. Dexter All-State performers included Joey Sayre in the 50 freestyle, the 200 medley relay team and the 200 freestyle relay team.
"This team worked extremely hard this year, I am just glad that they were able to accomplish their goals of finishing in the top 10 at state," said Dexter coach Michael McHugh.
"The key was our relays. Placing two of them in the top eight with the other placing ninth, got huge points for us as a team. By placing the two relays in the top eight, everyone on the state team became All-State."
The 200 medley relay foursome of Stephen Sobczak, Taylor Verna, Ben Steavenson and Walker McHugh swam 1:42.51 to place seventh, after clocking a season-best 1:41.51 in the preliminaries.
Robert Spiegel and Scott Dyer teamed up with McHugh and Sayre to place eighth in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:29.07, after going 1:28.93 in the preliminaries.
Sayre sprinted to sixth place in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.15. He then came back in the 100 freestyle to take the consolation final and finish ninth, touching in 48.34.
In addition to Sayre, other Dexter top-16 individual performers included Spiegel in the 200 freestyle and Sobczak in the 100 backstroke.
Sobczak clocked a 55.68 in the 100 backstroke to place 11th. Spiegel swam 1:47.21 to place 13th in the 200 freestyle, following a 1:46.07 performance in his preliminary.
Also scoring key points was the 400 freestyle relay squad of Sayre, Dyer, Verna and Spiegel, which swam 3:17.70 to place ninth and win the consolation final.
The Dreadnaughts recorded some other impressive swims in the preliminaries, some of which narrowly missed top 16. In the 200 individual medley, Steavenson finished 17th with a time of 2:04.18. In the 50 freestyle, McHugh finished 23rd at 22.78, while Sobczak was 30th at 23.13.
Spiegel finished 17th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.21, after competing in a tiebreaker swim-off for the 16th spot. Verna went 1:03.27 to finish 18th in the 100 breaststroke.
"This was a great year," McHugh said. "We accomplished all of our team goals throughout the year including winning the SEC (Southeastern Conference) White Division for the 10th straight year and placing in the top 10 at the state championships. I am so proud of this team. Everyone stepped up and helped us achieve what we set out to."
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