Emily Golden runs at the region track meet. She was the team’s best finisher at the state cross country meet and the only Lady Devils to run at the state track meet.

TIFTON — It was a banner school year for sports at Tiftarea Academy and Tift County High.

The Tift County Blue Devils won the 2017 Class AAAAAAA championship in boys basketball, stunning Norcross by a 55-52 score in Atlanta.

The Blue Devils, least favored in a Twitter poll of the semifinal teams, defeated four top 10 teams during the state tournament to finish on top.

Dr. Eric Holland said he leaned on his seniors for leadership. They delivered.

Holland’s big three of Preston Horne, Fred Lloyd and Micah Johnson all signed Division I scholarships, Horne going to Virginia Tech, Johnson to Alabama State and Lloyd signing to play football for South Florida.

Honors were not just limited to a team. Many individuals also won state crowns.

In February, Dalton Burks and Kirsten Murphy brought glory to their schools.

Burks won the 160-pound state wrestling title in double overtime, giving the Blue Devils their first individual champion in the sport since Primus Moore won at 189 pounds in 1997.

Murphy won three swim titles for Tiftarea, who took sixth place at state despite only having two swimmers and being in their first year of competition as a squad. Murphy won the 200 individual medley, the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle.

Two months later, Tiftarea’s Lady Panthers had another title winner when Marlee Marlowe won the GISA Class AAA meet in the 100 hurdles.

There were other outstanding individual achievements during the year.

Dawson Patterson threw his second career no-hitter for Tiftarea against Valwood. In 2016, he combined with Bo Vickers to do the same to Southland Academy.

Tift wrestlers Jake Pratt and Charley Powell both made it to the semifinals at state. Pratt ultimately finished third and Powell was fourth.

Dallas Hunt was eighth at the GISA state cross country met for Tiftarea, with Jackson Cook finishing 20th. At Tift, Emily Golden was 30th in cross country at state and was also the school’s lone representative at the state track meet, where she ran the 3200.

Elyssa Roberts likewise was the sole Tift county athlete at the state gymnastics meet, where she was fifth on vault.

During basketball season, Horne and Audrey McElhaney were recognized for scoring 1,000 points. Horne had multiple huge scoring outbursts during the year. Two of his top performances were a 40-point game against Lake Minneola (Fla.) and a 31 points in three quarters against Milton at the McDonald’s Invitational. Horne was finally outscored by the Milton team with four minutes remaining in the contest.

Tiftarea had teams go to state in football, softball, girls basketball and baseball. Tift qualified in football, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys tennis and girls and boys golf.

The Lady Panthers softball and basketball teams and the Panthers baseball team all reached the elite eight.