Tigers rank 5th in first wrestling rankings
Published 1:16 pm Saturday, November 28, 2009
The first state wrestling rankings were released Friday on “The Guillotine” Web site and Albert Lea is once again near the top of the state in the rankings.
The Tigers enter the season ranked fifth in Class 3A, just behind Owatonna, which is fourth. Apple Valley is No. 1 once again while Hastings is No. 2 and St. Michael-Albertville is third.
Albert Lea has five wrestlers in the rankings with junior Cory Hansen ranking No. 1 at 125 pounds. Freshman Lucas Hansen is ranked seventh at 103, sophomore Trey Hable fourth at 112, sophomore Dalton Westerlund fifth at 130 and senior Trevor Rasmussen fifth at 140.
Owatonna on the other hand has just four in the rankings. Senior Dalton Henderson is second at 189, senior Jordan Gnerer fifth at 171, senior Dillin Schultz fourth at 119 and junior Nick Scheffert is third at 103.
For the second consecutive season Albert Lea begins the season ranked one spot behind the Huskies. The ranking doesn’t have much effect on the team since they are used to it, but earning a fifth consecutive Big Nine title and a fifth consecutive section title might be a different story.
“It seems like every year they’re ranked above us,” said Cory Hansen, who finished second at state last season at 112. “I think we have tougher competition throughout the year and that gets us ready for sections.”
On paper it would seem Owatonna has the advantage, said Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature.
“I guess if you would look on paper, they’re probably the favorites this year for the Big Nine championship,” Goodnature said.
The favorites — yes; a lock for the title — no.
The Huskies look the favorite in the preseason because the Tigers lost so much from last season while Owatonna returns the vast majority of its lineup and it’s a lineup of mainly juniors and senior. Albert Lea returns five state entrants, two of which are underclassmen.
Those underclassmen are sophomores Westerlund and Habe. Westerlund finished fourth last year at 119 and Hable just missed placing at state. Hable was up 11-6 in his match against Sam Brancale before Brancale pinned Hable with 41 seconds remaining in a match to move on to the semifinals. Hable ended up dropping his consolation match against T.J. O’Hara.
Carter Kortan and Rasmussen are the other returners with state experience.
The experience is low this year after a group of seven seniors, four of which were state entrants, graduated.
“The last four or five years we’ve had great seniors that we’ve lost, but we’ve had fantastic juniors that would step right in as seniors and be leaders and be our big studs,” Goodnature said. “This year our senior bunch is one kid. Trevor’s the only boy with varsity experience.”
Albert Lea opens the season next weekend at Rochester.
Other area wrestlers making their way into the ranks are United South Central’s A.J. Dreyer and Preston Stolach and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva’s David Lindell in Class 1A.
Dreyer is the top-ranked wrestler at 215 and Lindell is ranked No. 4 at 215.
Stolach is ranked seventh at 140.
Dreyer finished sixth last season at 215 in his first state tournament while Stolach went 1-2 and lost in the first round of wrestlebacks at 145 last season.
Lindell was victim to a tough draw and faced Joel Bauman, the eventual state champion at 189 from Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg in the first round and then lost his second round match to the second-ranked wrestler in 1A, Tayler Yliniemi.
USC and NREHG won’t meet until Feb. 11 in Wells.