Agoura, Moorpark Place in Top 4 in Alemany Wrestling Tournament

The Agoura and Moorpark high school wrestling teams flexed their collective muscles in the 21st Alemany tournament Saturday and came away with third- and fourth-place finishes n team competition.

Mater Dei won the competition, which lasted nearly 10 hours and included about 150 wrestlers from 14 school. The Monarchs finished with 202 1/2 points to beat out runner-up Serrano (178). “Mater Dei and Serrano are two of the better teams around,” Alemany Coach Dennis Henderson said.

Individual champions included Steve Baer (113 pounds) and Walter Muirhead (166) of Agoura, which accumulated 159 1/2 points. Eight Chargers finished among the top five in their weight classes.

Moorpark, a close fourth with 157 points was led by the first-place finishes of Paul Gutierrez (133), George Mahoney (175), and Chris Juntilla (191).

Four wrestlers from City Section power El Camino Real, which finished sixth competed in title matches, but all four failed to win. Placing second were Chris Kuhlen (127), Roy Steinbock (146), Matt Roman (176), and Abdul Zaid (heavyweight).

Palmdale’s Cary Epstein (127) finished first and Steve Medillion (99), Takayuki Nagano (113), Mike Seifen (133 and Hohn Walzier (176) each finished third. Palmdale was seventh with 109 points.

Francisco Garcia (166) and Adam Wardlow (146 each finished third to lead host Alemany.