The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Dexter competes at final
PUBLISHED: March 15, 2007
Dexter's boys' swimming and diving team competed in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division II state championship meet last Friday and Saturday at Oakland University in Rochester. The Dreadnaughts came away with a 24th-place finish, out of a field of 72 schools.
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Winning the state championship was Holland, a newcomer to Division II this year, having moved down from Division I. Rounding out the top five places were East Grand Rapids in second place, followed by Birmingham Groves in third place, Birmingham Seaholm in fourth spot and Midland Dow in fifth place.
Local teams placing in the meet included Milan and Tecumseh, which tied for 10th, and Chelsea, which tied for 32nd place.
The top 16 participants in each event advance from preliminaries to finals, and points are awarded in each event through the top 16 places. Events had as many as 68 entrants, and each of these had to achieve the state championship qualifying standard to participate in the meet.
Senior Kirk Kumbier led the Dreadnaughts with a sixth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke and a 14th-place finish in the 200 individual medley. Kumbier also participated on the 16th place 200 medley relay team.
Joining Kumbier on the 200 medley relay squad were Dexter teammates Danny Rion, Robert Spiegel, and Joey Sayre. The foursome swam a season-best 1:43.91 in the prelims to qualify for the finals. The group clocked a time of 1:44.03 on the second day.
Kumbier swam solidly and consistently across the two days to earn his places, essentially holding his time in both of his individual events. In the preliminaries, he swam season best times of 1:00.92 in the breaststroke and 2:02.70 in the 200 individual medley, coming back with times of 1:00.96 and 2:02.82 in the finals.
With the sixth-place finish in the breaststroke, Kumbier earned All-State honors for the sixth time in his high school career, including four individual events and two relays.
Dreadnaught Ben Steavenson finished 18th in the 500 freestyle with a personal-best clocking of 5:00.38. In the 200 individual medley, he went 2:06.28, also his best, to finish 21st.
In the one-meter diving competition, Dexter's Scott Crompton finished 21st, a fraction of a point from advancing from the preliminaries to the semifinals, which take the top 20 divers after five dives.
Taylor Verna swam a lifetime-best 1:04.45 to finish 28th in the 100 breaststroke.
Finishing 32nd in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle, Sayre recorded personal best times of 23.11 in the 50 and 50.67 in the 100.
Scott Dyer finished 34th in the 500 freestyle with a clocking of 5:10.91, up just slightly from his tapered time of 5:09.36 achieved two weeks earlier at the Southeastern Conference meet.
Spiegel finished 38th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.05, and went 2:12.14 in the 200 individual medley to finish 45th.
Rion swam a lifetime-best 1:00.12 in the 100 backstroke, finishing 50th.
In the 200 freestyle relay, the Dexter quartet of Walker McHugh, Sayre, Spiegel, and Kumbier went 1:33.32 to finish 25th.
The 400 freestyle relay squad of Jacob Wiltse, McHugh, Steavenson and Verna swam a season-best 3:28.68 to finish 24th.
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