Whichever Division I and II teams make it through the ringer of pool matches on Saturday at SRC Arena in Syracuse will take home the first-ever state team titles, after the decision was made two years prior to include a dual meet championship similar to Ohio and Pennsylvania wrestling.

The Golden Cougars will enter the tournament as a No. 7 seed in Division II, which will place them on mat No. 8 alongside the No. 2 seed Mt. Sinai out of Section XI and unseeded Gouverneur out of Section X for the first round.

“You have to win your pool to advance so you probably have to win both of those matches to advance,” said head coach Drew Wilcox, who has recently spent time scouting results from the two teams in his pool. “If all three teams were to go 1-1 it’s a point differential to see who advances but that’s probably not going to happen. I went through all of their stuff this year and some of last year’s results, just trying to piece together what their lineup is going to look like.

Mt. Sinai has four state-ranked wrestlers. They’re a lot like us, they have some really good top-end guys but they are pretty solid at the rest of the weights, similar to us.”

The most recent rankings by the New York State Sportswriters Association have Mt. Sinai as the No. 5 team in Division II, while Falconer/Cassadaga Valley sits at No. 20. Top-ranked Locust Valley of Section VIII will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed on mat No. 5, while Warrensburg of Section II is the No. 2 ranked team and likewise holds the No. 2 seed.

Following is No. 3 seed Central Valley of Section III, No. 4 Norwich out of Section IV, No. 5 Canisteo Greenwood of Section V and No. 6 Pearl River out of Section I.

After the first round of action begins at 9 a.m., the pool winner of Falconer/Cassadaga Valley, Mt. Sinai and Gouverneur will meet the pool winner of Central Valley, Tioga and Point Jervis at 2:30 p.m. in semifinal action before the day’s finals are held at 6 p.m.

While Wilcox has been doing his best to research his coming opponents, the Golden Cougars are likely to stick close to the lineup that has gotten them all the way to Syracuse.

“We’ll more than likely enter with the team that we have and just wrestle with the kids that we have,” Wilcox said.

The good news for Wilcox is that his team has done a great job of staying motivated and determined from within.

“Dylan Ingrao, Robbie Penhollow and Dan Torres, they are the emotional leaders of the team and their energy is going to be key for us on Saturday,” he said. “It’s nice because obviously the whole team is looking forward to this, but our best kids are the ones most excited about it, which is always a good thing.”

While state tournament glory may be on the horizon, Wilcox is making sure that his team remains nearsighted this week, as they take to the mat today on the road against Olean to determine who takes home the CCAA Division 1 title.

Both the Huskies and Golden Cougars will enter the meet with undefeated 5-0 league records.

“We consider them a state-caliber team and we’re kind of using that match as … we’re approaching it as the first round of the duals,” Wilcox said.