TIFTON — Tift County’s swimmers finally broke through.

After years of coming close, the Swim Devils made it past the preliminaries and into the finals at the state swim meet at Georgia Tech. It was the first time Tift had done so during head coach Ivey Vickers’ tenure.

“It was a great feeling,” said Vickers.

And it was not just one Tift athlete who made it to the final round but 11.

The best finishes were by Beau Bengston, who was 11th in the 100 butterfly and 15th in the 100 backstroke.

“He did a great job,” Vickers said.

The others who made it to the championship round were J.D. Bengston, Dylan Coker, Stephanie Connell, Ansley Mobley, Kirstin Murphy, Karoline Ponder, Jacob Redd, Caleb Rice, Lauren Stone and Olivia Thomas.

The top finish for the Lady Swim Devils was 17th place in the 400 freestyle relay, swam by Ponder, Thomas, Stone and Mobley.

Connell, Thomas, Murphy and Mobley were 18th in the 200 medley relay and Ponder, Murphy, Connell and Stone finished in the same position in the 200 freestyle relay.

Murphy added an individual 18th place in the 100 butterfly and J.D. Bengston was the only other individual race Saturday, placing 17th in the 100 freestyle.

J.D. Bengston, Beau Bengston, Rice and Redd combined for 19th in the 200 freestyle relay. Beau Bengston, J.D. Bengston, Coker and Redd were 20th in the 400 freestyle relay.

Vickers is looking for bigger and better things in 2019. Of those swimming Saturday, she said only Mobley and Thomas will graduate.

“We’re returning a bunch of kids,” she said.

The state swim meet is dominated by metro Atlanta schools and Vickers said very few schools from outside the area qualified for the final round. Of those, she said Tift had the most final day entrants.

Even more remarkable was how Tift got there. The Swim Devils practice outdoors, a rarity among top schools.

Vickers is having to switch from coaching swimming to coaching tennis this week. The Devils were scheduled to open their season Tuesday at Irwin County, whose boys are the defending Class A public school champions. Their first home match will be Friday at 4 p.m. against Camden County.