Chargers get big wrestling victory

The Agoura wrestling team defeated Simi Valley, 41-35, in a match that went down to the final pair of wrestlers last week at Agoura High School.

With the Chargers leading, 38-35, Agoura’s Devin Conroy, wrestling at 127 pounds, beat Simi Valley’s Dan Organ, 8-5, to clinch the victory, which improved Agoura to 3-3 in Marmonte League while dropping Simi Valley to an identical record.

"I figured it would come down to the last match," Conroy said. "I was thinking for my team, ‘Just to go out there and win.’ My coaches told me that it would help out the team if I won."

The match started with the 132-pound weight class, which is why 127 was the final weight class to wrestle.

"We got some momentum going in the heavyweights, then our lightweights had some trouble, and we came back in the middleweights and picked it up," said Agoura head coach Dennis Ritterbush.

At 132, Agoura’s Adam Grover earned an 11-9 overtime win over Taylor Green to make the score 3-0, but at 137, Simi’s Richard Cano pinned Will Adams, giving the Pioneers the lead, 6-3. Matt Minshall then pinned Agoura’s Adina Farkash to increase Simi’s lead to 12-3.

Ryan Castle of Agoura pinned David Whitlock at 147 to cut the Pioneer lead to 12-9, and the Chargers took a 15-12 lead when at 154, Jon Licht pinned Simi Valley’s Mike Thoutte. A third-straight pin at 162 by Agoura’s Russell Skinner over Armand Greene upped the Charger lead to 21-12.

Simi closed the gap to 21-18 when at 173, Joel McKeehan pinned Agoura’s Matt Sun, but a Simi Valley forfeit at 191, and then at 217, a pin by Agoura’ John Terndrup over Jason Corbett made the Charger lead 33-18.

Nathan Mullet pinned Agoura’s Brady Smith at heavyweight and the score was 33-24 with the four lightest weights yet to wrestle.

Simi Valley fought back, closing the gap to 33-30, when at 103, Mikey Murphy pinned Rebecca Wahlgren, then Simi took a 35-33 lead when at 112, Mike Self defeated Monica Vasadani, 16-1. But a 17-2 win at 121 by Agoura’s Matt Bronstein over Danielle Green, gave the Chargers the lead 38-35.

That set up the final match between Agoura’s Conroy and Simi Valley’s Organ.

Ritterbush has seen 17 juniors drop the sport of wrestling. For that reason his is a young team.

"We’re so green," Ritterbush said. "I’m kicking a whole bunch of sophomores and freshmen into the fray. This year has been a problem for us because we didn’t have enough experienced kids on the mats. It’s a very young team."

The key to success next year—and subsequently—is to have this year’s young wrestlers stick with the sport, said Ritterbush.

"I sure hope so," he said when asked if he expects his underclassmen back next year. "That’s the whole problem—getting them to come back."

It’s easy for young, inexperienced wrestlers to lose heart.

"When you throw a younger kid against an older kid, and he gets beat up all year, he can become discouraged," said Ritterbush. "But we’ve got a good group of freshmen."

Conroy said the season has been a mixture of good times and bad.

"It’s been kind of a rough season. A lot of juniors dropped (the sport) but out of the guys that we have on our team—a lot of new guys—our team is doing pretty well," said Conroy.