Coaches consider what it would take to dethrone the University of Nebraska at Omaha as Division II wrestling champion and paint a bleak picture.

“For them not to win nationals, they’d have to have half their team wrestle terrible,” UNK coach Marc Bauer said. “And something like that doesn’t happen very often.”

UNO has qualified all 10 of its wrestlers for the two-day tournament, and at one point this season all 10 were ranked in the national top four at their respective weight classes. It wouldn’t be overly surprising if all 10 earned All-America status this weekend with finishes in the top eight.

Just to add a little more incentive and advantage, UNO will compete in front of a partisan crowd at Sapp Fieldhouse. The first round Friday starts at 11 a.m., with the second session scheduled for Friday night at 6. The championship finals are scheduled for an 8 p.m. start Saturday.

UNO, the season-long No. 1, is gunning for its fifth national title in seven years.

“They’ve got to have some guys slip, and the rest of us have to compete at the highest level,” said Jason Reitmeier, coach of third-ranked Augustana. “It’s just a fact.”

Reitmeier, who guided his team to a runner-up finish to UNO in 2005, said his frame of reference for any team to compete for a national championship includes getting two or three wrestlers to the finals and to have seven All-Americans.

Speaking at a Thursday press conference, Newberry (S.C.) coach Jason Valek, whose second-ranked team was the runner-up last season, demonstrated how that could just be a starting point.

“Last year we had two champions and six All-Americans and lost by (66) points (146.5-80.5),” Valek said. “What they did last year was remarkable.”

St. Cloud State coach Steve Costanzo, a former UNO star from Bennington, said wrestling in its own arena could provide an even bigger boost to UNO.

“If we allow their crowd to get into this tournament and get their guys excited about wrestling, and that momentum starts to get away from us, it could be ugly,” he said. “All of these teams have to come in and hopefully keep this crowd simmered.”

Fourth-ranked Wisconsin-Parkside split individual titles with UNO at the Super Region 3 tournament on Feb. 28, with each team getting five champions.

“They’ve got the depth,” said Rangers coach Jim Koch, who has a total of seven wrestlers in the meet. “They’re going to score a lot of points. I think we can score quite a few points, but it’s going to be very difficult for us. None of us have the opportunity to have 10 All-Americans.

“My goal is to have each of our kids do the best they can and if we can do that, whatever place we finish, we can be satisfied with it.”

So what does UNO coach Mike Denney say about all this?

“You’ve got to be able to handle it well,” Denney said. “Is there such a thing as a home-mat advantage? There can be, but you’ve got to handle it well.

“And you’ve got to get all your guys to hit, and that’s difficult to do. Then it’s the consistency through four rounds.”

UNO breezed to a 25-6 win over Newberry for the NWCA National Duals title on Jan. 10. The Mavs beat Augustana 26-6 in a Feb. 17 dual. St. Cloud State was a 34-9 victim on Jan. 23.

Newberry, Augustana, St. Cloud State and Wisconsin-Parkside represent an apparent changing of the guard near the top in Division II wrestling.

Central Oklahoma, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Minnesota State-Mankato are among the schools that remain highly competitive but perhaps not quite of the championship quality they have been in past seasons.

“I think it’s more of a parity issue,” Newberry’s Valek said. “We’re all continuing to grow. We’ve all elevated our recruiting and all aspects of our programs because we’re chasing down national titles and the accolades these kids deserve. The landscape is still pretty much the same, I just think it’s been elevated.”

But they’re all chasing UNO, which has taken its program to a higher level the past seven years. Third-place finishes in 2007 and 2008 have been the down years.

“Maybe I’m just a slow learner and it’s taken me this long to figure it out,” said Denney, UNO’s coach since 1979.

Recruiting a certain personality with a certain work ethic is a trait Denney has honed. So is having enough ability to create depth. When asked, Denney said that had he not been allowed to take his 10 starters to the regional tournament, several of his backups would have probably qualified for nationals.

“We’ve got guys who could be All-Americans in other situations that prefer to be in this program,” said 133-pounder Cody Garcia, who is shooting for his third national championship this weekend. “And because of that, they are crucial members of our team. We have a lot of guys who have to put in their time and wait their turn.”

Bauer, the UNK coach and another former Mav, said UNO is able to fuel its program with the ability to tell recruits they’re likely to win a championship ring. Recruits choose to wait two or three years to become a starter at UNO rather than move into a starting lineup earlier at other schools.

With only Garcia and third-ranked 197-pounder Jacob Marrs leaving the program after this season, more of the same can be expected.

But rather than despair, coaches focus on keeping up with the Mavs.

“We need teams like UNO way out in front of us,” Bauer said. “It’s good for us to have someone raise the bar.”

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

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