The Albert Lea wrestling team completed its toughest stretch of the schedule Saturday in St. Cloud at the Kiffmeyer Duals, facing two ranked teams and finishing 1-2 in the tournament.

The sixth-ranked Tigers (7-10) faced fifth-ranked Hastings to open the tournament and took the Raiders down to the final weight trailing 30-29. Hastings got a fall at heavyweight and won the dual 36-29.

Albert Lea bounced back against Sauk Rapids for a 60-9 victory and dropped its final dual with 11th-ranked St. Cloud Apollo 43-21.

Trey Hable, Connor Kortan and Carter Kortan all went 3-0 at the tournament while Cory Hansen, Garrett Wangsness, Trevor Rasmussen and Dalton Westerlund went 2-1.

“We just went through a heck of schedule,” said Tigers head coach Larry Goodnature, noting his team faced second-ranked Owatonna Thursday and competed at The Clash the weekend before.

It was another quality field Albert Lea faced at St. Cloud and that’s the reason Goodnature enters his squads in those tournaments.

“We have to learn to compete with this type of competition,” he said.

The Tigers begin a stretch of the second half of their schedule Tuesday with their first home meet of the season against Mankato West.

“Hopefully we can put some wins in the win column,” he said.