1st ever NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championship – Preview

Preview and Fearless Prognostications by Matt O’Rourke

The Lancaster Legends and Falconer Golden Falcons wrestling teams will have their work cut out for them when the squads take the mat for the very first NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championships being held this weekend at Onondaga County Community College in Syracuse. This isn’t to say that the Legends and Golden Falcons are ‘underdogs’ who barely squeaked into the tournament. The Dual Meet Championship will be represented by the twelve best large and small school dual meet teams from around the eleven NYSPHSAA interscholastic districts. To qualify, teams either won their own sectional dual meet tournaments, were awarded wildcards based on a second place finish in a dual meet tournament and how many returning state and sectional place finishers that team has, or granted the ‘nod’ to represent the section at the Duals, without a dual meet tournament (see State Wrestling Committee minutes, 1/10/2017, NYSPHSAA.org).

The matchups for both divisions have been redrawn at least once since the original drafts came out on Sunday. Lancaster (#11 ranked NYS large school-D1) was originally in a pool with Section VIII champion Wantagh (#2-D1) and Section XI champion Rocky Point (#4-D1). Some confusion in other pools lead to the eventual re-seeding of three of the four pools. Lancaster is now wrestling Section IX champion Minisink Valley (#1-D1, 24-0) and Section IV wildcard Horseheads (13-2) in pool action.

Falconer wrestles Section XI champion Mt. Sinai (#5 NYS small school-D2, 15-4) and Section X champion Gouverneur (14-4) in pool. Lancaster and Falconer will wrestle in the first round at 9:00am on Saturday.

Both division tournaments are set up as four pools of three teams each. All three teams wrestle each other in either the first, second, or third round. The winners of the four pools will face off against one another in the semifinal round. Teams that do not win their pool are eliminated.

Below are my fearless predictions for NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championship.

Division I:

Teams 1, 2, and 3

1st Rd: #1 seed Wantagh (Section VIII) over #8 Elmira (IV)

2nd Rd: Wantagh over Fox Lane (I)

3rd Rd: Fox Lane over Elmira

Group winner: Wantagh

Teams 4, 5, and 6

1st Rd: #4 Fulton (III) over #5 Hilton (V)

2nd Rd: Fulton over Shenendehowa (II)

3rd Rd: Hilton over Shenendehowa

Group winner: Fulton

Teams 7, 8, and 9

1st Rd: #3 Spencerport (V) over CBA/Jamesville-Dewitt (III)

2nd Rd: Rocky Point (XI) over Spencerport

3rd Rd: Rocky Point over CBA/J-D

Group winner: Rocky Point

Teams 10, 11, and 12

1ST Rd: #2 Minisink Valley (IX) over #7 Lancaster

2nd Rd: Minisink Valley over Horseheads (IV)

3rd Rd: Lancaster over Horseheads

Group winner: Minisink Valley

Semifinals:

Wantagh over Fulton

Minisink Valley over Rocky Point

State championship:

Wantagh over Minisink Valley

Division II

Teams 1, 2, and 3

1st Rd: #1 Locust Valley (VIII) over #8 Warrensburg (II)

2nd Rd: Locust Valley over Peru (VII)

3rd Rd: Warrensburg over Peru

Group winner: Locust Valley

Teams 4, 5, and 6

1ST Rd: #5 Canisteo-Greenwood (V) over #4 Norwich (IV)

2nd Rd: Norwich over Pearl River (I)

3rd Rd: Canisteo-Greenwood over Pearl River

Group winner: Canisteo-Greenwood

Teams 7, 8, and 9

1ST Rd: #3 Central Valley Academy (III) over #6 Tioga (IV)

2nd Rd: Central Valley over Port Jervis (IX)

3rd Rd: Tioga over Port Jervis

Group winner: CVA

Teams 10, 11, and 12

1st Rd: #7 Falconer over #2 Mt. Sinai (XI)

2nd Rd: Mt. Sinai over Gouverneur (X)

3rd Rd: Falconer over Gouverneur

Group winner: Falconer

Semifinals:

Canisteo-Greenwood over Locust Valley

CVA over Falconer

Final:

Canisteo-Greenwood over CVA