One thing is certain about the Section 3 Individual Wrestling Championships Saturday at Fox Chapel High School.

It will be a battle.

Only one Butler County wrestler — Mars 126-pounder Alex Hornfeck (26-1) — has a No. 1 seed in the tournament. Stellar matmen like Seneca Valley’s Louis Newell (33-2) at 113 pounds, Butler’s Caleb Baxter (24-2) at 160 and Christian Sequete (13-2) at 182 did not land top seeds.

“That shows how balanced this section is now,” Mars coach Jason Wilk said. “It used to be that there were two top teams in this section followed by everybody else.

“Now it’s pretty even across the board.”

Wilk said Hornfeck is wrestling “at a different level right now” and that he sees the junior as a state qualifier.

“But it’s one step at a time,” he cautioned.

For the first time in years, Butler does not have a No. 1 seed in the section tourney. The Golden Tornado do have three returning section champions in Baxter, Sequete and 220-pound Saavon Mossby (23-9).

Mosby is seeded third behind Shaler’s Ron D’Amico (32-1) and Pine-Richland’s Brandon Scheller (19-14).

“Saavon lost to Scheller during the season. He wrestled a bad match and it cost him a seed,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said.

Baxter is seeded No. 2 at 160 behind North Allegheny’s unbeaten Eric Hong (22-0). Sequete is No. 2 at 182 behind Fox Chapel’s Mike Mahon (27-3).

“We didn’t wrestle consistently enough this year to get those top seeds,” Stoner said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t battle our way through. We’re capable of doing that with a number of kids.”

The top five placers in each weight class advance to next weekend’s WPIAL Championships.

Despite placing second at the state meet last season, Seneca Valley’s Newell is seeded No. 2 behind Sam Hillegas (32-1) of North Hills.

“We didn’t wrestle North Hills in a dual this year, but Louis lost to Hillegas at the PowerAid tournament,” SV coach Kevin Wildrick said.

“The seeding for the section is pretty basic and it’s usually fair. Almost everyone went head-to-head with everyone else, so it’s not hard to figure out.”

Wilk agreed.

“The seeding doesn’t matter much in this tournament. You have to beat the best kids to win, anyway,” he said.

Knoch’s top seed os Eric Green (17-5), who is seeded third at 170 pounds, The Knights have eight wrestlers in the tourney. Kameron Grassi (10-9) is seeded fifth at 120.

Mars lost 138-pounder Jake Richardson, ranked among the top six in the WPIAL, for the season with a concussion. Max Lamm (4-8) replaces him in the Planet lineup.

Lamm (4-8), a freshman, is blind.

“Max is a good wrestler and I like his chances of getting through (to the WPIAL meet),” Wilk said.

Butler’s other top wrestlers include fourth-seed Jack Codispot (26-9) at 126, third-seed Scotty Dietrich (29-5) at 138, fourth-seed Tom Greaves (26-7) at 195 and fifth-seed Seth McCrea (22-8) at 285.

“We’ve got kids who an fare well down there,” Stoner said. “We need to put in a good day of wrestling.”

Seneca Valley’s Jason Geyer (22-9) is seeded second at 106. Nick Montalbano (19-10) is third at 126, Drew Vlasnik (21-10) fourth at 132, Alex Fischer (25-9) third at 145, Ty Gross (25-3) third at 160.

“I’m thinking, realistically, we can get seven kids through,” Wildrick said. “We usually get between five or eight, so that would be normal for us.”

For Mars, Noah Hunkele (20-7) is seeded third at 106, Justin Petrilena (19-6) fifth at 170.

“We could get as few as four and as many as six on to the WPIAL,” Wilk said. “Anything less than four would be a disappointing tournament for us.”

Doors open at 9 a.m. Saturday for spectators with wrestling getting under way at 9:30 a.m.. Doors open for the evening session — featuring the finals and consolation finals — at 5 p.m.