• Photo Showcase: NCAA Div. II championships

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A frequent refrain from UNO wrestling coach Mike Denney is that to win the national championship, you have to wrestle at the highest level for four rounds.

UNO was so good it had to do it for only three.

The Mavericks were only 1-4 in finals matches Saturday night at Sapp Fieldhouse, but it didn't matter because they had long since wrapped up their second straight Division II national wrestling championship.

In the process of sending five wrestlers to the finals in Saturday's morning session, the University of Nebraska at Omaha clinched the team title. It was the fifth championship in seven years for the Mavs, the sixth for Denney and the program's seventh overall national title — including the 1970 NAIA crown.

“You look at the overall performance, and they gave us everything they had,” Denney said. “They responded well.

“We had some guys wrestling in the finals who had been scouted really well.”

Mavs fans in the championship session crowd of 2,174 had to wait to the end to celebrate an individual title — second-ranked heavyweight Elijah Madison rode out top-ranked Brady Wilson of Minnesota State-Mankato for the entire second period and used the riding-time point for a 1-0 victory.

“We'd had some bad luck earlier in the night,” Madison said. “A lot of pressure was on me.”

Madison, a redshirt freshman, avenged two previous close losses to Wilson this season.

“I learned that he knows I can shoot and he's going to stay away from my strength,” Madison said. “Nobody scored when we were on our feet, even though we're both good on our feet.”

UNO rolled up 131 team points. Augustana finished second with 72, while Upper Iowa and the University of Nebraska at Kearney tied for third with 67.

UNK had an individual champion in 174-pounder Marty Usman, who completed his sequence of third, second and first-place finishes over three years.

Madison extended to eight consecutive seasons UNO's streak of having at least one individual champion.

“Brady Wilson is one tough heavyweight,” Denney said. “But since the regional tournament, Elijah has just been clicking.”

The Mavericks had designs on bigger and better things.

They could focus on individual glory, but with the team element no longer providing inspiration, the Mavs may have lost their edge. Previously it looked like it was the UNO Open, and everyone else was just there for the Mavs to tune up for bigger and better things.

The finals session got off to a rough start for UNO as 133-pounder Cody Garcia tried to complete an undefeated season and win his third national title. But Pittsburgh-Johnstown's Shane Valko, runner-up last year and the season-long No. 1, earned a 6-3 win. Valko was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler.

“Cody has been drained, his body hasn't been right,” Denney said. “But he never complained.”

At 141, Augustana's Jay Sherer knocked off UNO's third-ranked Mario Morgan, winning 3-1 with a takedown in sudden victory, just keeping his toes inbounds. Morgan had won three previous meetings, twice last year and once last month in a dual.

“When you wrestle a guy a lot of times, they see you, they know what you're going to do, and we know what they're going to do,” Morgan said. “It's whoever is better that day. And he was better today.”

Sherer is from Columbus, Neb., and had a strong contingent of hometown fans mixed in with Augustana's large following. Ty Copsey, Augustana's 197-punder from Glenwood, Iowa, placed second.

Esai Dominguez, UNO's third-ranked 149-pounder, lost to an old nemesis of his own — Wisconsin-Parkside's top-ranked Craig Becker. Becker, who was assessed a late stalling point, nonetheless claimed a 4-3 victory.

“He's good at what he does,” Dominguez said. “He gets his one takedown and he can hang out. Some people wrestle that way. It's hard to wrestle guys like that.”

Becker has won three of four matchups with Dominguez the past two years, including the super regional title last month. The only exception was last year's third-place match at nationals.

“I tried to wrestle my match,” Dominguez said. “Sometimes I get it, like I did last year for third. Sometimes I come up short.”

Unranked Jonathan Jackson of Anderson beat UNO 157-pounder George Ivanov, completing a championship run that included wins over wrestlers ranked Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 8. Ivanov had been No. 8.

UNO also got third-place finishes from Jacob Marrs at 197 and Ryan Pankoke at 165, as well as a seventh-place finish from 125-pounder Terrell McKinney.

After cruising to the final round, UNO inadvertently gave itself motivation for next year.

“We've got to get better,” Morgan said. “We've got to push it. We've got to get more than team titles, we've got to get individual titles, too.”

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

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