Tift wrestling head coach Shawn Watson has the highest hopes for this week’s state tournament for Gerald Coney, who is competing in his third tournament.

TIFTON — Two Tift County wrestlers medaled as the 2018-19 wrestling season finished last Saturday with the traditional state meet at Macon. Seth Spillers finished his high school wrestling career as a state placer. Junior Gerald Coney had his best finish ever.

“We only took five,” said Tift head coach Shawn Watson of the crew that qualified for the state meet. “Two of them placed.”

Despite the slight representation, the Blue Devils were 15th overall.

“You can’t ask for anything more than that,” he said.

Coney (182 pounds), Spillers (285), Rod Redding (160), Quay Goldsborough (113) and Dalton Hancock (220) made trip from Tifton to Macon for the season finale, having qualified earlier this month at the Class AAAAAAA sectional meet.

Redding, Coney and Spillers all won first round matches, but fell in the second round against tough competition.

Coney came the closest to making the semifinals, dropping a match to Camden County’s Cody Herring, 4-2. Watson said the match tied at 2 in the third period. Had Coney won, Watson believes he could have made the finals. Herrin finished second to David Key of Brookwood.

Battling through the consolation bracket, Coney won three straight decisions, two by shutout, to reach the third place match. There, he was matched up with Bruce Ferguson of South Gwinnett. Coney took a 2-0 lead into the third period before pinning Ferguson with about four seconds left.

Spillers had the unfortunate luck of running into a buzzsaw in his second round match. Collins Hill’s Tomari Fox pinned Spillers in the first round. “We didn’t have a chance,” Watson conceded. Fox went on to win the tournament.

In the consolation matches, Spillers took three decisions, the last in sudden death overtime over Hayden Malson of Camden County.

Spillers was pinned by Dylan Fairchild of West Forsyth in the third place match. It was still a very good season for him. Watson said he defeated four state champions across various classifications this year.

After a wild 13-10 decision in the first round, Redding fell, 3-1, to Hillgrove’s Devin Terza, who went on to finish third. Redding lost by an even closer score, 3-2, in his final match.

“I just hated it for him,” said Watson. “There were some tears shed. I told him I was so proud of him.”

Redding, a senior, finished the year with a 21-9 record.

Goldsborough and Hancock made their first ever appearances at state. Neither was able to pick up a win and Watson hoped they were able to learn a lot from the experience.

Though enemies during the regular season, Watson said he was rooting for South Georgia wrestlers at state. Camden County and Valdosta won team traditional titles. Turner County was third in Class A, West Laurens was second in AAAA, with Veterans, Toombs County and Richmond Hill all placing in the top five.

Camden had four individual champions in AAAAAAA. Valdosta had one. Around the area, D.J. Lundy (Irwin County), Zion Blackshear (Turner County) and Kevin Martin (Fitzgerald) all won individual state titles.

“When you see a kid from South Georgia win it all, it’s pretty special,” said Watson.