The Albert Lea wrestling team looked like a well-oiled machine primed on making good on a fourth consecutive trip to state.

The Tigers had little problem Thursday with Faribault in its opening dual of the Section 1AAA dual tournament.

The Tigers (26-7) won all but two matches, had eight falls, and two technical falls in a 65-6 win over the Falcons.

“It’s a whole new season right now and we took our first step here,” said Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature. “We went out there and got the job done.”

The Tigers started the dual with six victories by fall and had a 36-0 lead early.

No. 3-ranked Cory Hansen pushed his record to 33-4 with a victory over Marcus Riggle at 112 pounds and Cody Hansen, ranked No. 3, moved to 32-4 with his pin of James Dennis at 130.

Albert Lea moves onto the semifinals to face John Marshall which begins Saturday at 11 a.m. in Rochester.

“They were relaxed, they were having some fun and that’s the most important thing, too,” Goodnature said. “You can’t be nervous about this part of the season, you got to be excited and you got to have some fun out there and that’s what we did tonight.”

Albert Lea 65, Faribault 6

103 — Trey Hable (AL) pinned Brandon Peters, 1:14, 112 — Cory Hansen (AL) pinned Marcus Riggle, :52, 119 — Dalton Westerlund (AL) pinned Alex Zabel, 1:12, 125 — Adam Clark (AL) pinned Peter Seitz, 1:32, 130 — Cody Hansen (AL) pinned James Dennis, :58, 135 — Trevor Rasmussen (AL) pinned Matt Purfeerst, :53, 140 — Nick Knott (F) dec. Trevor Friday, 2-0, 145 — Adam Kermes (AL) tech. fall Dalton Chmelik, 4:34, 152 — Conner Kortan (AL) dec. Evan Broughton, 10-1, 160 — Logan Kortan (AL) tech. fall Matt Becker, 16-1, 171 — Matt Tiegs (AL) dec. Caelb Breyer, 11-6, 189 — Jordan Holland (AL) pinned Kevin Palacios, :47, 215 — Ethan Reed (AL) pinned Oscar Garza, 2:08, 285 — Cole Wilson

(F) dec. Alex Nielsen, 8-1.