ALHS matmen top Faribault
Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 4, 2003
At first, coach Larry Goodnature was not impressed with the performance of the Albert Lea High School wrestling team.
Then he looked at the final score.
The Tigers flattened Faribault 45-17 in the ALHS gym Friday night despite what Goodnature called not one of their most focused meets of the season.
“It was the first match after the break, and some individuals were a little flat,” said Goodnature, whose team moved up to No. 7 in Class AAA in the Guillotine’s latest ratings. “Not the whole team, but some individuals maybe took Faribault a little lightly. I didn’t feel we wrestled up to our ability tonight, like we had before Christmas. We need to get in a little better shape and we need to be more aggressive on our feet; we need to go after those guys instead of waiting and countering.”
The first three Tigers on the mat didn’t wait for anything to happen.
Adam Elseth scored a first-period fall at 140 pounds, and Adam Morreim pinned his opponent in the second period at 145. A first-period fall by Dustin Eggum at 152 put Albert Lea up 18-0.
Faribault won the next three bouts. Cory Frerk lost 8-4 at 160, Jared Butler was edged 2-0 at 171 and Mike Honeycutt fell 14-5 at 189.
Randy Larson followed with a 2-0 victory at 215 and heavyweight Chris Hable got a first-period fall, making it 27-10.
After Zach Hansen dropped a 5-1 decision at 103, Josh Hansen and eighth-grader Matt Morris scored consecutive falls. Taylor Ignaszewski won 5-3 at 125. Nate Goodnature lost 13-1 at 130. Neal Underdahl finished it with an 11-4 triumph at 135.
“Overall, we beat Faribault pretty handily,” said Coach Goodnature. “But we weren’t at our best.”
The Albert Lea junior varsity won 61-18. Winners for the Tigers were Beau Hansen, 103; Eric Johnson, 112; Darrin Honeycutt, 119; Zach McGinnis, 125; Eric Elleby, 130; Brandon Mellang, 135; Tim Frazier, 140; Josh Wilke, 145; Alex Paul, 152; Levi Hughes, 160; and Ben Berhow, 171.
The Tigers are 8-2 overall, with their only losses to No. 2 rated Simley and No. 3 Owatonna. They’re 3-1 in the Big Nine. Next up is a key Big Nine dual meet at Rochester Mayo on Thursday.
The Spartans are undefeated in the Big Nine and were 7-0 overall entering this weekend’s dual-meet tournament at Rochester.