Cory Hansen left the mat breathing heavy, Trey Hable walked off dejected, and Lucas Hansen looked like he saw stars while Dalton Westlerlund and Trevor Rasmussen dominated their matches to begin the first round of the Class 3A individual tournament Wednesday for Albert Lea at the Xcel Energy Center.

Fourth-ranked junior Cory Hansen won a close match 2-1 against Eden Prairie’s Spencer Caspers with a second period takedown and hung on in the final period. Hansen’s third consecutive trip got off to its toughest start with Caspers, whose strength kept Hansen at bay.

“He kind of stopped my offense and I didn’t get my offense going,” Hansen said. “Sometimes it’s just his style. Certain styles you run into that your style will struggle with. I think this is one of the cases where his style of wrestling kind of stopped mine.”

Hansen (37-4), coming off two consecutive runner-up finishes, moved on to face Hastings’ Colton LaChance (37-5) in the quarterfinals.

LaChance beat Hansen at the Kiffmeyer Duals 7-3 and is ranked third at 135 pounds.

Hansen’s brother, Lucas, an eighth-ranked freshman at 103, met No. 1-ranked sophomore Sam Brancale from Eden Prairie in his first state tournament and left the mat dizzy after Brancale threw him to the mat early in the first period and pinned Hansen in 1 minute, 34 seconds.

The throw left Hansen (24-19) woozy, but he may find himself in the wrestlebacks Thursday if Brancale (36-0) wins his next match.

At the state tournament there are plenty of tough matches, but the Tigers got them early, especially sophomore Hable at 125.

Hable, ranked fourth at 125, faced third-ranked Sam Stewart from Andover in the first round and walked off with a 6-0 defeat.

Hable (32-10) attempted shots throughout the match but couldn’t land one against Stewart (37-3), who got two takedowns and a reversal for the victory.

It might be the only match Hable gets at the state tournament after nearly placing last season. Stewart faces Apple Valley’s top-ranked Matt Kelliher (41-2) Thursday and Hable needs Stewart to win to advance to the wrestlebacks.
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Westerlund, Albert Lea’s sixth-ranked sophomore at 130, and Rasmussen, the Tigers’ seventh-ranked senior at 140, won their matches and controlled their opponent for the majority of the match, but both face highly-ranked opponents in the next round.

Westerlund (31-9) cruised to a 10-1 victory against Tartan’s Michael Buhl (25-9) and outside of an escape and reversal, Rasmussen (32-9) dominated Northfield’s Tyler Malecha (28-13) for a 9-3 victory.

The tough matches in the first round were just the beginning for Albert Lea as the next round presents Hansen, Rasmussen and Westerlund with ranked opponents, but Rasmussen wasn’t lamenting about the tough early draws.

“No matter what you have to get through them to get to the finals,” Rasmussen said. “We got tough draws but we’re all tough wrestlers, too.”

Westerlund will face Henry Sibley’s top-ranked Mason Young (34-3) Thursday in the quarterfinals and Rasmussen will wrestle fifth-ranked Zach Rohr (34-6), an opponent who beat him 3-1 at the Kiffmeyer Duals in January.

“Last time I hardly took any shots,” Rasmussen said. “It’s going to be a different story … I’m just going to go out there with confidence and see what happens.”

For someone like Rasmussen the state tournament is like another big meet he has wrestled in throughout his career, and Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature tried tell the wrestlers to treat the state meet like another big tournament.

“We told them, ‘You guys have all been up here so you know what to expect so treat this like any other tournament you’ve been in this year. We’ve been in tougher tournaments and tournaments of this caliber so don’t treat it any different,” Goodnature said.

But still the pressure of the state meet seemed to affect everyone. Even a senior like Rasmussen admitted he still gets butterflies before matches, but he said the pressure also helps him focus.

“There’s so many people here,” Rasmussen said. “I think it helps me be more focused on my match.”

The quarterfinals begin at 5 p.m. for Class 3A and the wrestlebacks start at 8 p.m.