Tigers wrestling shines at Rumble

Published 9:20 am Saturday, December 31, 2011

Trevor Westerlund won first place, and the Albert Lea wrestling team finished second on Friday in the 60-team Rumble on the Red tournament in Fargo, N.D.

Westerlund, who entered the day as the top-ranked wrestler at 106 pounds, won a 6-4 decision in the finals against Foley’s Tyler Funk to take home the title.

Four other wrestlers placed for the third-ranked Tigers, who finished with 190.5 points and 17.5 points behind first-place Scott West.

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“I’m very pleased with how the kids wrestled the past two days,” Tigers coach Larry Goodnature said. “It’s a very grueling, grinder of a tournament and if you’re going to do well you’ve got to come with an attitude.”

Westerlund won five matches en route to the his victory over Funk, the ninth-ranked wrestler in Class AA.

Garrett Wangsness placed third at 113 pounds, Dakota Wangsness fourth at 120 pounds, Dalton Westerlund third at 160 pounds and Trey Hable second at 170 pounds. The Tigers also had five wrestlers on match away from placing, according to Goodnature.

Albert Lea did not have wreslters compete in the 182- or 195-pound weight classes.

“We beat a lot of ranked wrestlers throughout the two days and the kids wrestled great,” Goodnature said. “The coaches were really proud with the performance of both our varsity and junior varsity. We took a number of kids up here and had a good time.”

The Tigers junior varsity team also placed second with 267.5 points. Cambridge-Isanti won the JV tournament with 436 points.

Albert Lea’s Spiering Sundblad placed first in at 152 pounds, and Beau Johnsrud (95), Bryce Hoyt (120), Spencer Carstens (138), Santanna Acosta (138), Dylan Anderson (160), Tayler Blake (195), Andrew Borland (285) and Jacob Kunkle (285) also placed.

Goodnature said both teams thrived on what they do best: getting bonus points.

“We’re a good pinning team,” Goodnature said. “We got a lot of falls this week on the varsity and I’m sure the JV did, too. I know the JV wrestled in 118 matches and some of these kids on the varsity and JV ended up wrestling six to nine matches in two days. That’s pretty tough.”

The Tigers wrestle again at 7 p.m. on Thursday against Mankato East.