The Section 1AAA team wrestling tournament gets underway Thursday in Albert Lea and the Tigers are eying an unprecedented fourth consecutive trip to state.

Albert Lea will face the winner of the Winona-Faribault dual at 7 p.m. at Albert Lea High School Thursday in the first round.

The Tigers (25-7) enter the tournament armed with a 13-match consecutive winning streak and 42 consecutive wins over Big Nine opponents. They will try to extend both of those Thursday and Saturday.

“We’re feeling confident,” said senior captain Cody Hansen. “It’d be awesome if all four of my years we make it to the state tournament. It would be a great accomplishment and I would just be very proud of our team.”

Hansen is part of one of the strongest senior classes the team has had in recent history, evidenced by the group reaching the state tournament three previous years.

“Throughout the years, these seniors have worked hard as ninth-graders, as 10th graders, and as 11th graders, but they got to see a great group of wrestlers years before them,” said Albert Lea head coach Larry Goodnature. “They grew up watching how it’s supposed to be done in Albert Lea wrestling and they’ve learned from that and now they’ve been teaching the younger kids the last four years how to work hard, how to drill, and how to become better wrestlers.”

The three senior captains of Hansen, Logan Kortan and Ethan Reed have put together impressive numbers this season. Hansen owns a 31-4 record with 14 falls, only his brother Cory has more victories and he has 32. Reed has a 26-4 record with 17 falls and Kortan is 13-1 after missing the first month of the season because of injury. Kortan is the career leader in victories for the Tigers.

Several other seniors have had a big impact this season as well. Adam Kermes got a big win against Owatonna Saturday and owns a 16-12 overall record. Adam Clark has filled in at different weights during the season and owns a 17-9 mark.

“We’ve had a great senior class,” Hansen said. “We’ve all been on the same team since youth. We work well with each other and get along.”

And they always have the same goal on their minds.

“We just have the same goal every year — just to make it to state — and that’s what we’re planning on doing,” Hansen said.