One weekend in mid-March, the boys high school swimming teams from Saline and Pioneer were dominating on the west side of the state while several other local programs made the short trip to Eastern Michigan University.

In the coverage void created between those Division 1 and Division 3 state finals, Dexter junior Stephen Sobczak quietly had the most dominant Washtenaw County swimming performance of the season.

After the Division 2 state finals at Oakland University, Sobczak emerged as a member of the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association’s Dream Team and the AnnArbor.com Swimmer of the Year.

Sobczak knows that being the Swimmer of the Year in Washtenaw County - where a top-10 finish at a state championship meet isn’t enough to catapult you into the 15-member Dream Team level - is a significant accomplishment.

In fact, he says the high level of competition in the area is what pushed him to win the award.

“The competitiveness in the area is outrageous,” he says. “Pioneer has always been strong and Saline is just getting started with their young team. I think it makes everybody a little bit better.”

Sobczak trains with Club Wolverine alongside the top swimmers from Pioneer, Saline and Huron.

“You have the competition of the high school season and then go back to them being your friends,” Sobczak says. “And … then it’s still a competition. You always want to be the fastest.”

Dexter coach Michael McHugh says he’s stared directly into Sobczak’s competitiveness, and gotten nothing in return.

“Anybody at that level is going to have that fire and drive to be the best, but I’ve never seen in it in a kid like I’ve seen it in Stephen,” McHugh says. “He’s so intense … you can talk to him before a race, but you’re not going to get a response. Just a head nod.”

That focus eventually led to two Southeastern Conference White Division individual titles and two automatic All-American times at the D2 state finals, where he finished second in both the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.

Sobczak says he was immediately drawn to the backstroke when he started swimming competitively at age 6. It’s the race he loves, and the one he really wanted to win.

He cut his 2009 runner-up state final time of 52.64 seconds down to 51.24 this season. While that was good enough to have won a Division 1 state title by nearly a half second, defending D2 champ Nick McGowan of Birmingham Groves turned in a 50.84.

“I wasn’t disappointed in my time, but I was disappointed that I lost,” Sobczak said. “I wanted to get first in that, but I lost a solid race. He was a good swimmer.”

With another year of high school eligibility remaining - and another year of competitively-fueled training ahead of him - Sobczak isn’t shy about his upcoming goals.

“For sure to be a state champion in the 100 free and 100 back,” Sobczak says. “And one of the big goals for our whole team is to win a state championship. We’re trying to get back to that caliber of competing for the state title. That’s what we strived for this year.”

The Dreadnaughts finished sixth this year, but return every swimmer that contributed to their 149-point team total.

And McHugh is just as confident that Sobczak will be back, trading up the 34 points he earned for a pair of second-place finishes.

“He had a tremendous year, and he worked hard for what he got,” McHugh said. “I know he’ll work hard and take his ability to the next level and win a couple state titles. I think we’ll see an even better Stephen.”