BEDFORD — The Seymour wrestling team had two top-three finishers at the Hoosier Hills Conference meet on Saturday morning at Bedford North Lawrence.

First up, in the 106-pound weight class, Seymour’s Dane Botkin entered as the two seed and lived up to his billing.

With a record of 18-10, Botkin received a bye in the first round as Jennings County had to forfeit the match. He wrestled BNL’s Patrell Childs in the semifinal and won by tech fall.

After that, Botkin wrestled in the first-place match against Floyd Central’s Rollin Douglas.

“He took care of business (in the semifinal) and then ran into a semistate qualifier in Rollin Douglas, so that one did not go our way,” head coach Dan Rasey said.

Douglas won by fall over Botkin with the fall coming at 2:33.

Botkin earned second place on the day, improving his record to 20-10 on the season and scoring 19.5 points for the Owls.

“Dane has had a really solid year,” Rasey said.

The other top-three finisher for the Owls on Saturday came from Sam Chandler at 138.

Chandler started out with a tough draw against Columbus East’s Reece Fisher, who won by major decision 10-0. But Chandler bounced back after that.

He scored a fall over Brax Huber of BNL in 1:29, and then in the third-place match against Jennings County’s Evan Sochacki, Chandler won by major decision 19-16.

“Sam rebounded with having a rough draw because of his record we couldn’t get him seeded,” Rasey said. “To come back and rally and come back to third was awesome. He’s been a solid leader for us all year.”

Chandler is now 6-8 on the season and scored 14 points for Seymour with his third-place finish. Rasey believes Chandler’s record isn’t indicative of how he has performed so far this season.

“Just a workhorse,” Rasey said. “Sam is one of those kids you can rely on to get you wins if you need him.”

Rasey was pleased at how Botkin and Chandler both placed in the top three for Seymour.

“It was evident those two are the ones putting in the most work in the wrestling room,” he said.

Ricky Bogard placed fifth for Seymour at 113, scoring a win over Ash Fernandez of Jennings County in the fifth-place match.

Rolando Baltazar also placed fifth for Seymour at 120, while Chase Rogers (132), Dunigan Huddleston (145) and Brandon Mora (170) all placed seventh in their respective weight classes.

Hunter Wick placed sixth at 182 and Waylon White placed fifth at 220, pinning New Albany’s John Orr at 5:25.

As a team, Seymour placed seventh with 69.5 points. Floyd Central won the meet with 278 points.

The Owls had to forfeit six weight classes (126, 152, 160, 195, 220, 285) on Saturday, making it difficult to rack up points.

As the sectional approaches on Jan. 29, Rasey said he hopes to have all of the weight classes filled except one, and that’s 138. Chandler will move back up to 145 for sectional.

“We should be full go and really ready to give everyone a run at sectional,” Rasey said. “I would be surprised if we’re not sitting in the top four at least. I think second is a reasonable goal if we’re willing to put the work in the next few weeks.”

But first, Seymour has a rivalry match coming up this Thursday against Jennings County at home at 6 p.m.

Rasey hopes to have most of his roster healthy and ready to go for this matchup with the Panthers, as well.

“We should be full strength going into Jennings County next week,” he said. “Huge rivalry. We really want to win that one. I don’t want to lose that one in my first year taking over the program.”