Every second mattered Saturday night as the No. 3-ranked Albert Lea wrestling team defeated No. 4 ranked Owatonna 39-18 for its 25th Big Nine championship at Albert Lea High School.

In front of a packed gym the Tigers (24-7) went a full six minutes and then some in four matches to hold off the Huskies for their seventh consecutive victory over their rival.

The middle weights were expected to be the most contested and Albert Lea proved stronger as the Tigers won 140 through 160. Not surprisingly many of the nights most exciting matches came in those weights.

At 140, No. 9 ranked Trevor Rasmussen came from behind and scored a takedown in the final seconds of his match against Zach Schreiber for a 4-3 decision that Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature cited as the turning point in the match.

“I told the kids, ‘You have one job; wrestle as a team and wrestle six minutes until the buzzer goes off,'” Goodnature said. “That’s what they did, they wrestled six minutes and a few of those boys it took five minutes and 59 seconds to win.”

Adam Kermes wrestled next at 145 pounds and he also came through with a late victory, defeating Taylor Hedberg 5-4 with an escape late in the third period.

After Logan Kortan picked up a major decision over Tyler Thomas at 152, fans were treated to one of the best matches of the evening at 160 pounds.

Matt Tiegs, ranked No. 5 at 171, faced off against Jordan Gnerer, the No. 7-ranked wrestler at 160 in a tight match.

Tiegs scored an escape point in the second period and Gnerer tied it up with an escape in the third period and the two entered overtime.

In overtime both Gnerer and Tiegs got escape points, but in the third session of overtime Tiegs prevailed with a reversal for a 3-2 decision that gave Albert Lea a commanding 33-9 lead.

“It was a close one,” Tiegs said. “I knew I had enough left to beat him anyway, he was wearing down. I just kept grinding and I knew he’d wear out.”

Tiegs, normally a 171-pounder, trimmed down to 160 for this matchup. It was one Goodnature knew would be close.

“We knew it was going to be a match just like it turned out,” Goodnature said. “He just doesn’t give up points very easy. It’s hard to score on Tiegs and he definitely showed that tonight.”

Albert Lea got off to a solid start through the lower weights by picking up bonus points and getting falls from Dalton Westerlund and Cody Hansen. Cory Hansen had a technical fall victory over Scott Summer and the Tigers had a 20-3 lead going into the tossup matches.

“We got the bonus points where we needed them and there was a couple of times that we stayed off our back and didn’t give up the bonus points,” Goodnature said. “They won where they were supposed to win and the tossups, we won the tossups.”

Owatonna got on the board first when Nick Scheffert earned a 3-1 decision in overtime against No. 9-ranked Trey Hable at 103.

Cory Hansen got the Tigers back on track as they had three consecutive victories with bonus points.

“We stayed fired up and Cory got a win for us,” Cody Hansen said. “We just kept going from there. It’s good to a lot of points in our lower weights and keep going from there.”

Cody Hansen pinned Adam Kubat in 3:39 at 125 after Westerlund pinned Bowen Schultz at 119. Kyle Kriewall followed Hansen at 130 and earned a hard-fought 2-1 decision against Jake Fox that gave the Tigers another tossup match in their favor.

In all, Albert Lea won 10 of the 14 matches.

Casey Dehn, No. 4 at 285, Dalton Henderson, No. 2 at 171, Hector Millan, No. 3 at 130, and Scheffert were the only winners for the Huskies.

Albert Lea 39, Owatonna 18

103 — Nick Scheffert (O) dec. Trey Hable, 3-1 OT, 112 — Cory Hansen (AL) tech. fall Scott Summer, 20-5, 119 — Dalton Westerlund (AL) pinned Bowen Schultz, 3:39, 125 — Cody Hansen (AL) pinned Adam Kubat, 3:26, 130 — Kyle Kriewall (AL) dec. Jake Fox, 2-1, 135 — Hector Millan (O) pinned Carter Kortan, 1:37, 140 — Trevor Rasmussen (AL) dec. Zach Schreiber, 4-3, 145 — Adam Kermes (AL) dec. Taylor Hedberg, 5-4, 152 — Logan Kortan (AL) maj. dec. Tyler Thomas, 11-3, 160 — Matt Tiegs (AL) dec. Jordan Gnerer, 5-3 OT, 171 — Dalton Henderson (O) tech. fall Eric Espe, 20-8, 189 — Jordan Holland (AL) dec. Coyte Kuefner, 10-8, 215 — Ethan Reed (AL) dec. Cody Johnson, 10-4, 285 — Casey Dehn (O) tech. fall Alex Nielsen 24-8.