The upper weights were going to be a problem for the Albert Lea wrestling team against second-ranked Owatonna and the Tigers needed to pick up bonus points at the spots they could to keep it close Thursday in their dual at Owatonna.

Albert Lea didn’t and it hurt the Tigers in a 36-16 loss to the Huskies. In fact the seventh-ranked Tigers got bonus points in just one match.

Owatonna battled back to win the final seven matches to knock off Albert Lea for the first time in eight meetings.

“Hopefully we meet at the section finals,” said Tigers head coach Larry Goodnature. “They’ve got a very balanced team.”

Albert Lea’s 48 consecutive victories over conference opponents, which spread over four years, came to a close and perhaps gave way to a solid Owatonna squad.

Jake Fox’s 11-5 victory started the rally for the Huskies with an 11-5 decision over Caleb Kolodge. Kolodge wasn’t intimidated by Fox, who is ranked fifth at 145 pounds by The Guillotine and came out of the first period with a tie. But Fox, a senior, delivered in the third period, scoring a takedown, near-fall and two stalling points for the victory. It cut the Albert Lea lead to 16-12 and marked the beginning of the Tigers’ demise.

Jordan Zeman followed with a 6-0 victory over Carter Kortan at 152 and Owatonna took the lead for good after Jeremy Duruji’s 4-1 decision over Connor Kortan made the match 18-16 in favor of the Huskies.

Owatonna went on to pick up bonus points in the next four matches and finished with five total, including two falls.

Albert Lea’s bonus points had to come from the lower weights and only fifth-ranked Dalton Westerlund got any for the Tigers with a 15-5 major decision over sixth-ranked Dillin Schultz at 130.

“I’d like to have got some bonus points from Cory (Hansen) and Trevor (Rasmussen),” Goodnature said.

Hansen, ranked third at 130 and Rasmussen third at 140 came close to earning bonus points. Hansen defeated Tom Lundberg 8-1 at 135, but wasn’t able to find one last takedown. Rasmussen came close at 140 as well, but settled for a 5-1 victory over Justin Duruji.

Albert Lea won the five of the first seven weights and unranked freshman Garrett Wangsness set the tone early at 103 in his first dual meet against the Huskies.

Wangsness trailed 1-0 entering the third period but picked up a stalling point and an escape to take a 2-1 lead against third-ranked Nick Scheffert. Then Wangsness added a takedown at the buzzer to get the Albert Lea crowd humming.

But Owatonna rallied back with fifth-ranked Evan Green knocking off sixth-ranked Lucas Hansen in a back-and-forth match at 112 and Ben Anderson pinned Devin Nelson in 1 minute, 58 seconds at 119 to put the Huskies up 9-3.

Trey Hable cut it to 9-6 with his 6-1 victory over Bowen Schultz.

Goodnature said he was pleased with how the team performed, calling it one of the best meets the team has wrestled.

“I was very encouraged,” Goodnature said. “We wrestled with a lot of enthusiasm.”

Owatonna 36, Albert Lea 16

103 — Garrett Wangsness (AL) dec. Nick Scheffert 4-1; 112 — Evan Green (O) dec. Lucas Hansen 10-5; 119 — Ben Anderson (O) pinned Devin Nelson 1:58; 125 — Trey Hable (AL) dec. Bowen Schultz 6-1; 130 — Dalton Westerlund (AL) maj. dec. Dillin Schultz 15-5; 135 — Cory Hansen (AL) dec. Tom Lundberg 8-1; 140 — Trevor Rasmussen (AL) dec. Justin Duruji 5-1; 145 — Jake Fox (O) dec. Caleb Kolodge 11-5; 152 — Jordan Zeman (O) dec. Carter Kortan 6-0; 160 — Jeremy Duruji (O) dec. Connor Kortan 4-1; 171 — Tyler Thomas maj. dec. Mitch Webb 19-11; 189 — Coyte Kuefner (O) maj. dec. Caleb Gaudian 13-1; 215 — Dalton Henderson (O) maj. dec. Alex Nielsen 12-4; 285 — Logan Barrett (O) pinned Christian Anderson 3:09.