AUSTIN– The Albert Lea wrestling team collected five falls Thursday as the No.4-ranked  Albert Lea Tigers defeated the Austin Packers 57-9 to officially clinch their 26th Big Nine Championship.

Garrett Wangsness, Tristan Westerlund, Caleb Kolodge, Dylan Anderson and Conner Kortan all won by fall for Albert Lea.

“This win sewed up the Big Nine conference championship for us,” Albert Lea coach Larry Goodnature said. “We wrestled well. We wrestled aggressive and were going for the fall.”

The Tigers end the regular season with a 28-3 record and a perfect 8-0 record in the Big Nine.

Albert Lea will earn the No.1 seed in the section tournament and will host a section match on Thursday night.

Albert Lea 57, Austin 9

103: Dakota Wangsness (AL) dec. Devon Felten 9-2

112: Garrett Wangsness (AL) fall Brennen Russell 3:39

119: Erick Power (A) dec. Lucas Hansen 6-4

125: Devin Nelson (AL) dec. Brandon Cotter 8-1

130: Alex Amrich (A) dec. Spencer Carstens 2-0

135: Tristan Westerlund (AL) fall Thao Doan 1:01

140: Peter Bergland (AL) dec. Logan Finnegan 4-2

145: Caleb Kolodge (AL) fall Michael Gaines 2:23

152: Trey Hable (AL) won by forfeit

160: Dylan Anderson (AL) fall Mitch Tebay 5:03

171: Dustin Samudio (AL) won by forfeit

189: Conner Kortan (AL) fall Joe Williamson 1:31

215: Thomas Herrera (A) dec. Caleb Gaudian 3-2

285: Alex Nielsen (AL) won by forfeit