Timmy Brinson of Colquitt County High wrestling competes against Lowndes in the Area 1-7A duals held Saturday in Moultrie.

MOULTRIE – It was winner-take-all Saturday at Colquitt County High, and that winner turned out to be the Tift County Blue Devils.

The Area 1-7A wrestling duals turned into a three-team round-robin as, according to Packer coach Evan Goff, the area coaches voted Camden County as the No. 1 seed from the area to the GHSA championships this upcoming weekend in Macon.

So, on Saturday, it was a battle for the second seed, and Tift County – fourth in 6A one season ago – was the only team to leave Moultrie 2-0.

The Blue Devils had no issues with Lowndes, winning 61-8 to start the competition. Only eight matches took place between Colquitt and Lowndes, and the Packers prevailed 54-24.

There was no shortage of action, however, between Colquitt and Tift with the Packers looking to get into state duals for the first time ever.

Tyler McKinnon wrestled first in 170. All of the scoring of the first period took place in the last 15 seconds, but the Blue Devil slipped ahead 3-2.

McKinnon got the advantage early in the second period only to see Tift reverse it, and with a hold on the head got the pinfall 44 seconds in.

Shelby Burnette. senior at 182 pounds, needed about 1:12 seconds to score the tying pin.

Tift reclaimed that lead getting six points for a pin at 195. Nic Jarvis, a sophomore with 30-plus wins this season, put the team score back even pinning his foe in 54 seconds.

There was bad news for heavyweight Brian Merritt in that he didn’t get to grapple in front of the home crowd. The good news is that’s because both Tift and Lowndes forfeited that spot, so that was six points and a lead on the Blue Devils. The dual got interesting from there.

Jared Collum was next at 106. The early takedown went in his favor. Though his Tift foe escaped, Collum scored five for another takedown plus a near fall to lead 7-2 after one.

Collum rode his opponent the whole second period only to give up one point on a technical violation. In the third, Tift reversed things 20 seconds in, but Collum escaped. His takedown made his lead 10-5. Though Tift escaped with 50 seconds on the clock, all he could do was ride and not get any points, Collum winning 10-7.

The Packers were up 21-12 but gave up six on its own forfeit at 113. The Blue Devils then won 120 by pin in the first period and 126 by pin in the first to go ahead by nine, 30-21.

A match that thrilled the audience followed featuring sophomore Timmy Brinson at 132. Early takedowns were starting to favor the Blue Devils, plus a reverse in the first period put them up 4-2.

The second period was a stalemate until Brinson reversed the situation and tied things up going into the final two minutes. Brinson had the advantage to start, but Tift quickly reversed it. Brinson did escape at 1:04, but time was running out for him to score, and the final was 6-5.

The Devils then went up 18, 39-21, on a second-period pin at 138. That meant the Packers needed three pins to tie. Senior Hayden Suggs got one at 145 when he was up 7-0.

Victor Castanon was also a winner at 152, but by major decision, only worth four points. He was up 2-1 after one period, but did a lot of takedowns and reverses afterwards to win 12-4. The Devils had an eight-point lead with one match left, which they won by pin at 160 (45-31 final).

In the Lowndes dual, Alex Hinson won by pin at 170, as did Burnette and Suggs.

120 Zach Kirkland was up 2-0 after his first period, scored a near fall in the second and won 9-2. 126 Deonte Edwards led 5-0 after one period, 7-2 in the second and 11-4 after three.