The Albert Lea wrestling team finished 2-1 to take fifth place at the eight-team Kiffmeyer Duals Saturday in St. Cloud.

The Tigers beat Elk River 36-29, crushed Hammond Baptist 82-0 and lost 37-23 against Cambridge-Isanti, the fifth-ranked team in The Guillotine’s Class AAA polls.

The match against Elk River went down to the wire. Neither team won more than two matches in a row. Elk River cut its deficit to one point after the 220-pound weight class.

Albert Lea’s Will Mendez pinned Steven McGuire in 25 seconds to seal the Tigers’ win.

“He’s had that situation more than a couple times this year, and he came through,” said Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature. “He’s shown a lot of improvement along with Santana (Acosta).”

Mendez and Acosta went undefeated on the day, and Derek Samudio was on the right side of a pair of decisions and won his other match by forfeit.

Cambridge-Isanti had six state-ranked wrestlers, and Albert Lea — the eighth-ranked team in Class AA — had four.

However, two of those Albert Lea wrestlers — Triston Westerlund and Devin Nelson — remained on the sideline with injuries.

The 120-pound match pitted a pair of ranked wrestlers against each other. Albert Lea’s Beau Johnsrud is No. 5 in Class AA, and Monty Frederiksen is No. 9 in Class AAA.

Frederiksen got the upper hand with a 2-0 decision, but Goodnature said positive things can come from the loss.

“Even if they get beat, they’re going to learn from it,” Goodnature said. “I also feel that some of our kids are good enough to compete and win against that kind of competition.”

The meet gave Goodnature an opportunity to change his lineup to give his non-starting wrestlers experience.

Garrett Aldrich — the No. 7-ranked wrestler at 106 pounds in Class AA — wrestled only one match, a 15-5 major decision against Cambridge-Isanti. Brody Neilson stepped in for the other two matches at 106 pounds against Elk River and Hammond Baptist. He came away with two falls in a total of 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

“He (Nielsen) came in and did a really nice job,” Goodnature said. “He had two good duals.”

Albert Lea will take the mat next against Waterville-Elysian-Morristown/Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at 7 p.m. Thursday after the junior varsity team wrestles at 6 p.m.