Seymour’s Dane Botkin works for a takedown against Scottsburg’s Trevor Hall during their 126-pound match Thursday night. Botkin pinned Hall to help the Owls win 55-24.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Seymour’s Mason Nugent looks to his coaches for instructions while riding Scottsburg’s Landon Vincent during their 170-pound match Thursday night. Nugent won a major decision 12-4.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
The Seymour wrestling team closed out its home schedule Thursday night in grand style by defeating Scottsburg 55-24.
It was senior night, and six seniors competed for Seymour and five of them won their matches.
Owl seniors getting pins were Chase Rogers at 138, Sam Chandler at 152 and Brenden Bridgewater at 220 on the varsity level, and Drew Banister and Alex Martinez in JV matches.
The only Seymour senior to lose was Jonathan Venegas at 132.
Owls Coach Dan Rasey said, “It’s nice to see most of the seniors go out with a win at home. Five of the six that wrestled today pulled away with wins. It’s always nice to send them out at home with a W.”
Rasey said the seniors have meant a lot to the program. “It’s a small group but it’s an important group. They have bought into what I’ve been trying to sell. They may not be the most vocal guys — none of them really are — but they come in and they just work hard in the room and they’re setting the tone.”
“You can really see things starting to click. The last two weeks you can see the lights coming on. We have improved immensely,” Rasey said. “With the HHC coming up on Saturday, it’s a good time to be reaching your peak. We’re not there yet, but two and one-half weeks before sectional is a perfect time to start really getting into form.”
Seymour’s David Vogel at 106, Charlie Bruce at 113 and Riley Bear received forfeits before Botkin had five takedowns, a reversal and a near fall before pinning Hall.
The win raised Botkin’s season record to 17-3 and he is the No. 1 seed at 126 at the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament Saturday at Columbus East.
Botkin said he needs to be ready mentally and physically for the tournament. “I need to keep the right mindset and stay focused. I need to get a good practice in (today), rest up and come in Saturday ready to wrestle. I’d say I’m having a pretty good season.”
“I got a bye first round, so I get to rest up the first round. From there I need to go to the finals and win. That’s my goal. Last year I got second behind Floyd. I’m definitely a lot more aggressive than I was last year,” Botkin said. “Tonight was a good win for the seniors. We’ve definitely had a lot of growth this season. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores so we don’t have the experience that we need, but the freshmen are holding up, and we’ll have a lot of freshmen coming in.”
Other Owls who won varsity matches Thursday night were Nic Frady with a 3-0 decision at 145, Briley Compton a pin at 160, and Mason Nugent a major decision at 170.
Logan Cunningham at 182, Diego Aguilar at 195, and Jesus Aguilar at 285 lost pins.
Winning decisions in JV matches were Nolan Keyes and Brandon Mora.
Rasey said he feels like East is the favorite for the HHC title, followed by Floyd Central.
Besides Botkin as a one seed, Chandler and Compton are No. 2 seeds.
“We have a couple more that are three seeds, so the seeding meeting was actually pretty good to us,” Rasey said. “If they come out and wrestle like they have the last two times they’ve competed, we have a really good shot at placing third or fourth, maybe even second.”