It’s every man for himself — survival mode, if you will.

The Section 3-AAA Individual Wrestling Championships take place Saturday at Fox Chapel High School. The top five placers in each weight class advance to the WPIAL Championships next weekend at Penn Hills.

“Each wrestler is fighting for himself now,” Mars coach Jason Wilk said.

Butler, Seneca Valley, Mars and Knoch are involved in the Section 3 tourney. Four area wrestlers — Seneca Valley’s Louis Newell (29-4) at 106 pounds, Butler’s Caleb Baxter (25-6) at 152 and Christian Sequete (30-5) at 170, and Mars’ Noah Wright (26-4) at 160 — are seeded No. 1 in their respective weight classes.

“All season long, it’s all about the team,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said. “The team element is over. Now it becomes individual. Some kids respond to that, some kids don’t.”

Butler has three other wrestlers — Scott Dietrich (21-7) at 138, Justin Johnson (24-6 at 182) and Saavon Mosby (18-12) at 220 — as No. 2 seeds.

The Golden Tornado have 11 wrestlers with winning records in the field. Seneca Valley has eight, Mars seven and Knoch four.

“You love to have your seniors finish strong and ours have a good chance of doing that,” Stoner said. “It’s a long day of wrestling and you want to get off to a positive start in that first match.

“Our goal is to always get double-digits into the WPIAL tournament. A couple of years ago, we got 13 of 14 through, the most in the WPIAL. It’s a tough thing to figure out. Often times, someone you don’t calculate getting there works his way through. Someone you figure will get through, doesn’t.”

Besides his top seeded wrestlers, Stoner sees heavyweight Seth McCrea (16-7), Isaiah Christy (14-12), who dropped down to 106, and Jack Codispot ((15-12) at 120 as other key contenders.

“Isaiah has been at 113 most of the year. Jack missed a month with a knee injury and he’s been coming on,” Stoner said. “It’d be great to see him get to WPIALs as a freshman. And Saavon (Mosby) could win his weight class as a freshman.”

There are only eight wrestlers in the 220-pound and heavyweight divisions.

The Knights’ top wrestler is Brandon Yobst (23-5) at 152 pounds.

Wilk is particularly high on Wright, who is only a junior.

“He’s worked so hard for this,” the Mars coach said. “Not only at all of our practices, but he gets in extra practices with the Pitt wrestling club.

“Noah has been involved with this sport since he was a little kid. He’s capable of going well beyond this. He’s good enough to win the WPIAL title.”

Planet sophomore Alex Hornfeck (26-2) at 113 and “sleepers” Justin Petrilema (5-5) at 170 and Nick Schriver (12-11) at 182 could also make an impact Saturday.

“Justin has been injured all year and is only 0-1 in section matches,” Wilk said. “Nobody really knows about him, but he’s healthy now and could make a run.

“Nick is a football player, very athletic and is just in his second year of wrestling. I feel like he’s turning the corner. Alex could get through to the state level. I feel like he’s ready.”

Besides Newell, Seneca Valley has four 20-win wrestlers in Jason Geyer (24-12) at 113, Ben Lynch (23-10) at 120, Alex Lynch (26-10) at 126 and Alex Fischer (21-14) at 138.

Besides Yobst, Knoch’s top wrestlers are Dalton Ashton (20-8) at 195, Eric Green (14-9) at 160 and Max Freyermuth (13-10) at 145.

Weigh-ins are at 8 a.m. Saturday with matches scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The finals are at 6 p.m.