Seymour’s Brandon Mora works his opponent during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Bedford last season.
Tribune file photo
Seymour’s Ricky Bogard goes for the legs against Jennings County’s Ash Fernandez during a match last season.
Tribune file photo
Dan Rasey is set to begin his second season at the helm of the Seymour wrestling program.
The Owls had a lot of young pieces last season, which means there are a whole lot of familiar faces returning for the 2022-23 campaign.
First and foremost is sophomore Dane Botkin, who had a very successful inaugural year with the Owls.
Botkin qualified for semistate after he defeated Providence’s Kalob Monning in the 106-pound match in the Jeffersonville Regional last year. Botkin also was named Seymour’s freshman of the year after the season ended.
Although Botkin was the only one who advanced to semistate last season, there are three Owls returning who were regional qualifiers last year. Those are senior Cam Chandler, junior Brandon Mora and sophomore Ricky Bogard.
Bogard pinned Jennings County’s Ash Fernandez, beat Madison’s Jack Dyer by decision 14-8 and then pinned North’s Bryce Hawkins to finish third in the sectional to advance. Mora won by fall over Scottsburg’s Skyler Hamilton and won by sudden victory over Madison’s Travon Resendiz. Lastly, Chandler defeated North’s Josiah Green via tech fall and beat Madison’s Noah Burkhardt by a 7-3 decision.
Getting that kind of postseason experience back is a good thing for this Owls team.
Seymour has a large senior class heading into this season. The seniors for the Owls are Chandler, Drew Banister, Brenden Bridgewater, Eduardo Bustos, Leonardo Eguizabal, Mark Henson, Alex Martinez Cabrera, Chase Rogers, Hector Ruiz Rosa, Brayden Schulz, Jose Torres and Jonathan Venegas.
To complement the large senior class, the Owls also have a large freshman class with 13 ninth-graders currently on the roster.
One of those freshman is AnnMarie Shuler, who earned a third-placed medal in the IHSWCA Middle School State Meet in January as an eighth-grader.
In March, the IHSAA announced it was adding girls wrestling and boys volleyball to its new emerging sport process. Shuler will be wrestling coed with the Owls this season.
Seymour’s season gets underway Wednesday when the Owls compete in the Edgewood Invitational starting at 9 a.m. After that, the Owls will compete in their first dual match Dec. 1 at Columbus East, and they won’t have their first home match until Dec. 15 when they host Bedford North Lawrence.