NORTH VERNON — There was a lot of toughness shown by Seymour’s wrestling team on Saturday for the sectional at Jennings County High School.

The Owls placed sixth as a team with 102 points as Columbus East won as expected with 323 points, and Seymour had six competitors qualify for regionals next Saturday.

To qualify, you needed to finish in the top four in your respective weight class.

Dane Botkin placed third place in the 106 pound weight class. Botkin (24-11) received a bye in the first round and won by forfeit in the quarterfinal. He lost to Columbus North’s Liam Curfman in the semifinal, but Botkin bounced back to beat East’s Dominic Baker by tech fall. He followed that up with another tech fall victory over Madison’s Danny Mack.

Ricky Bogard also placed third for Seymour in the 113 weight class. Bogard pinned Jennings County’s Ash Fernandez in the quarterfinal before getting pinned by West Washington’s Mason Jones in the semifinal.

Bogard (22-1) beat Madison’s Jack Dyer by decision 14-8, and then he pinned North’s Bryce Hawkins to finish in third.

“Impressed by our two young lightweights Dane and Ricky bouncing back from tough semifinal losses to take third and give themselves a good shot next week of advancing to semistate with a good week of work,” head coach Dan Rasey said.

Sam Chandler was the highest placing Owl of the day at 145. Chandler defeated North’s Josiah Green via tech fall and beat Madison’s Noah Burkhardt by a 7-3 decision to advance to the first-place match.

Chandler (10-9) ran into East’s Kenton Wilson and dropped the match, but still placed second place.

“Sam Chandler wrestled an amazing, tough, gritty match in the semifinals against the one seed Noah Burkhardt from Madison to secure our only finals spot,” Rasey said. “He is one that always seems to find himself in every match by standing sound and technical. Probably our best technical wrestler on the team. Got caught in a bad spot in the final but had a great tournament for us.”

Rolando Baltazar (21-17) earned fourth place at 126, beating Southwestern Hanover’s Elijah Weatherbee and JC’s Alexis Giltner both with a 5-0 decision.

Carlos Ortiz (12-7) also placed fourth at 285. He won by decision over North’s Cody Thurnall 7-2 and won by fall over West Washington’s James Martin in the consolation third round.

“Glad to see Carlos and Ro get a shot as seniors to keep their careers going next week,” Rasey said. “It will be quite tough for them, but there is always a chance if there is time left on the clock.”

Finally, Brandon Mora earned a fourth place finish at 170 to become the sixth Owl to advance.

Mora won by fall over Scottsburg’s Skyler Hamilton and he also won by sudden victory over Madison’s Travon Resendiz.

“Brandon Mora has been two or three weight classes higher than he should be for the team and for him to dig out an amazing overtime consolation semifinal match to advance shows how much fight and heart he has,” Rasey said. “I am excited for his next to years when he is able to go back to a weight he will be more suited for with a couple seniors graduating.”

The six Owls will be heading down to Jeffersonville this Saturday to compete in the regional with a chance to qualify for semistate.