Devils finish in top eight at state duals

Jan. 24—TIFTON — Tift County wrestlers finished in the final eight of the Class 6A state duals over the weekend, going 2-2 in team competition.

"I'm very proud of them," said head coach Shawn Watson. Though Watson believes they could have fared a bit better at state, he looks at their 24-7 record. "Not bad at all," he said.

The tournament was held at North Forsyth High. Tift fell to Jackson County in the first round, 54-21, knocking them to the consolation bracket. There, the Blue Devils doubled up Johns Creek, 55-21 and edged Dunwoody, 36-31. Woodward Academy ended their run, 45-18. Woodward finished in third place.

Tift lost D'Corey White and Damion Moate to injuries against Jackson County, but kept battling.

Danny Freeman won all four of his matches, two by pin and one via major decision, according to results input on Track Wrestling. Javon Bateman, Nathan Vicars and Stephen Zheng won three. All three of Vicars' victories were pins. Bateman had a pin and 18-3 technical fall in his stats.

Michael Dixon, Peyton Whiddon and Tanner Fachner each had two wins. Both of Whddon's and Fachner's were pins.

Other Devils winning matches were Tucker Lovett, Austin King, Jamari Johnson, Anthony Pace, Dawson McMillan, K.J. Wilcox, Daniel Soto, Keegan Goodman and Jaxson Hughes.

Though they did not have as many wins in the tournament as other Blue Devils, Watson said many of the wins were huge for the team.

Tift trailed by a point to Dunwoody going into the final two matches. Wilcox won a 9-8 decision to put the Devils ahead, then Soto clinched it by winning 8-2. Watson said he was especially proud that it came down to those two seniors.

Hughes won in overtime against Woodward. McMillan had an especially tough slate of opponents, Watson said.

Though only 1st-4th places were officially named at state, Watson figures Tift County would have been 7th at the end.

South Effingham won state in 6A over Region 2-6A rival Glynn Academy via tiebreaker. South Effingham had four pins to Glynn's three. Creekview placed 4th.