ROCHESTER – The section tournament is just around the corner, but the Albert Lea High School wrestlers were obviously not thinking about it Thursday night.

Friday, February 08, 2002

ROCHESTER – The section tournament is just around the corner, but the Albert Lea High School wrestlers were obviously not thinking about it Thursday night.

The Tigers were focused on their final dual meet of the regular season and trounced Rochester Century 52-18. Albert Lea finished 8-1 in conference duals and improved to 14-6 overall.

&uot;I think we wrestled one of our better matches of the whole year tonight,&uot; said coach Larry Goodnature. &uot;Everyone was very aggressive and intense. We dominated on our feet with takedowns. I think we’re peaking at the right time here.&uot;

The meet started with the 189-pound match and Adam Lares didn’t waste much time ending it, pinning his opponent in 2:15. Chris Hable followed with a 9-1 major decision at 275. Josh Hansen needed only 24 seconds for a fall at 103, putting the Tigers up 16-0.

Alex Hansen lost by fall at 112. Nate Goodnature had a 4-3 lead before giving up a third-period fall at 119.

Then the Tigers won four in a row, starting with falls by Brandon Klukow at 125 and Neal Underdahl at 130.

Adam Elseth won 15-4 at 135, scoring seven takedowns to give him 100 for the season and break Aron Attig’s regular-season school record of 98.

Adam Morreim won by fall at 140, Nate Loberg lost by pin at 145.

The Tigers finished with three straight wins, 13-6 by Dustin Eggum at 152, a fall by Justin Krueger at 160 and a 17-1 tech fall by Derek Goodnature at 171.

The seeding meeting is Monday for the section tournament. The Tigers are expected to be one of four teams to host an opening-round meet next Thursday.