Tigers get five to state meet

Published 7:57 pm Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Albert Lea wrestling team has made the Xcel Energy Center its winter vacationing spot in recent years and the Tigers will make the trek back with five wrestlers in tow after the Section 1AAA individual tournament Saturday at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Albert Lea won’t bring the entire team this year for the first time in four years, but the Tigers return a host of wrestlers who have started to become regulars at the individual tournament.

Albert Lea junior Cory Hansen, ranked fourth at 135, won the section title at 135 pounds with a 5-0 decision against Rochester Mayo’s Marcus Wolf to make his third consecutive trip while senior Trevor Rasmussen breezed through the 140 bracket by pinning every opponent to make his third consecutive trip to state.

Email newsletter signup

Other returners include sophomores Dalton Westerlund at 130 and Trey Hable at 125, who will both make their second consecutive appearances at the state tournament.

Freshman Lucas Hansen earned his first trip to the state tournament with a second-place finish at 103 pounds.

Albert Lea crowned three section champions in Cory Hansen, Rasmussen and Westerlund while Lucas Hansen and Hable finished second.

“We wrestled OK, I was pleased,” said Tigers head coach Larry Goodnature. “The champions wrestled really well.”

Rasmussen, ranked seventh, pinned Mankato West’s Hunter Freisen with two seconds left in the first period to run his record to 31-9.

Westerlund made up for his 3-1 loss to Dillin Schultz last weekend in the team tournament with a 5-2 decision and his first section championship.

Hable got another opportunity against Owatonna’s Bowen Schultz, who he lost 3-0 to last weekend, but lost 5-3 in overtime in the finals.

Hable got a takedown with 20 seconds remaining for a 3-1 lead, but Schultz got a reversal with seven seconds left to force overtime. In overtime Schultz got a takedown for the victory.

The loss forced Hable into a true second match with John Marshall’s Charlie Stellpflug, which ended quickly with Hable pinning Stellpflug in 1:19.

Lucas Hansen fell 2-0 to Owatonna’s Nick Scheffert in the finals to finish second.

The Tigers had five third-place finishers, including junior Alex Nielsen and freshman Garrett Wangsness who got true second matches.

Wangsness recovered from a first round loss to Austin’s Brennen Russell and made his way through wrestlebacks with victories over Devon Patton, Tony Latwesen, Zack Lowe and Russell again.

“Garrett wrestled a heck of a tournament, bumping up a weight like he did,” Goodnature said. “He beat a lot of good kids getting himself into a chance for true second. He took ‘em to the wire.”

Wangsness got a match with Owatonna’s Evan Green for second place but Green came away with a 6-4 decision.

“He was bound and determined to get himself into that true second match and give himself a chance to go to state and he really did it,” Goodnature said. “He showed a lot of heart today.”

Nielsen won 5-1 against Austin’s Brett Kraemer for third place at 215 and faced Century’s Drew Miller for second place and a chance for state. Miller took an early lead and hung on desperately in the final period. Nielsen trailed 6-2 entering the third, but picked up two stalling points to draw within two and had Miller scrambling in the final period.

“Alex Nielsen had a great tournament as well getting to where he did,” Goodnature said. “He turned some things around, got aggressive and I was really happy with that.”

Connor and Carter Kortan both finished third and missed out on true second matches.

Carter Kortan lost 8-0 to Austin’s Howie Underwood at 145 but beat Faribault’s Dalton Chemlik with a fall in 55 seconds. Underwood lost 2-1 in the finals to Owatonna’s Jake Fox and left Kortan without a true second match.

Connor Kortan got an escape at the buzzer in the third period against John Marshall’s Ryan Williamson at 160 and a takedown in overtime for a 5-3 victory. But a 4-3 loss to Mankato West’s Tyler Jakes in the semifinals and Owatonna’s Jeremy Duruji’s 7-3 victory over Jakes negated a true second match.

Albert Lea junior Caleb Gaudian finished third after pinning Faribault’s Alex Miller in 2:19.

Albert Lea senior Mitch Webb finished fourth after winning two matches in the wrestleback round.

The state tournament begins Wednesday in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center at 6 p.m. for Class 3A.