ROCHESTER – There were intriguing big questions heading into the final four of the Section 1AAA Wrestling Tournament.

The first was whether the Rochester Mayo Spartans could beat the Albert Lea Tigers for the first time in school history. The other was if the Tigers could knock off perennial power Owatonna.

We didn’t get to learn the answer to the second.

Third-seeded Mayo &045; coached by Albert Lea High School graduate Dwight Gingerich &045; defeated the second-seeded Tigers 31-23 in the semifinal round Saturday at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

The Tigers, rated No. 5 in the state in Class AAA in the final Guillotine poll, finished with a dual-meet record of 17-3. Mayo went on to get drilled 51-7 by Owatonna in the finals and finished 18-6.

&uot;We didn’t wrestle well,&uot; said Albert Lea coach Larry Goodnature. &uot;Overall, as a team, it just wasn’t there today.&uot;

Gingerich, in his 10th season as head coach, said it was a relief for Mayo to finally beat Albert Lea, though he didn’t consider it a surprise.

&uot;Our kids wrestled great, they wrestled super,&uot; said Gingerich. &uot;We knew we had the potential to do it, it just happened tonight. In my mind, we were not an underdog.&uot;

The meet was pretty much a dogfight.

Zach Hansen lost 9-3 at 103 pounds, but Josh Hansen and Alex Hansen followed with 10-0 and 8-4 decisions to put the Tigers up 7-3.

Taylor Ignaszewski lost 7-5 at 125 and Neal Underdahl fell 5-1 at 130, putting Mayo up 9-7.

Adam Elseth got those points back with a fall in 2:57 at 135, and Adam Morreim scored a 10-0 major decision at 140. An 8-6 victory by Brandon Klukow at 145 put Albert Lea ahead 20-9 &045; but the Tigers would win only one more.

Corey Frerk dropped a 13-2 major decision at 152 and Dustin Eggum was outpointed 7-2 at 160, pulling the Spartans within 20-16.

Derek Goodnature won 5-0 at 171, making it 23-16.

A key match at 189 went the way of the Spartans, with Mike Honeycutt falling 10-8 in overtime.

Randy Larson was pinned in 3:25 at 189, giving Mayo a 25-23 edge.

That left it up to the heavyweights, Chris Hable and Mayo’s Aaron Weets, who have faced and defeated each other a number of times.

Hable appeared to have the upper hand, gaining a 1-0 lead with an escape. Then, in the second period, Weets was tossed by Hable and needed two injury time outs for an apparent painful shoulder. Weets surprised Hable &045; and everyone else &045; tossing him to the mat and pinning him at the 3:32 mark.

While the Tigers’ team season is finished, they’ll look to qualify several wrestlers for state from the section individual tournament this Friday and Saturday at Rochester.