By Mike Finn

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — By the time Nebraska-Omaha’s Jacob Marrs stepped on the mat for his 197-pound match in the UNI-Dome, the top-ranked Mavericks had already  clinched a fifth NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals championship, Jan. 9, against second-ranked Newberry.

            But that didn’t mean that Marrs, a senior out of Oak Hill, Kan., didn’t have anything to wrestle for when the fourth-ranked Maverick met No. 1-rated Keeno Griffin.

            For Marrs, who lost to Griffin in both last year’s National Duals and the finals of the NCAA Division II tournament in Houston, Texas — where Griffin won the 2009 title, 3-2, in overtime based on a 12-second riding time advantage — this match was “personal.”

            That’s all the motivation Marrs needed in the second-to-last match at the National Duals as he scored a deciding takedown with less than a minute left to beat Griffin, 8-6, after the Newberry star tied up the bout in the second period.

            “A lot of people were talking to me and telling me that I had a bigger gas tank,” said Marrs, whose eighth-straight win improved his season’s record to 24-5. “(Griffin) took an injury timeout and I could see that he was fatigued and that if I pushed the pace more than he would, I would be fine.”

            Marrs wasn’t the only Maverick who found extra octane against Newberry and the rest of the field in the Dome, where UNO outscored four opponents by a 120-30 margin; the only team to score more than 10 points against the Mavs was St. Cloud State, which still lost 27-12 in the quarterfinals.

            “They’ve done a really good job of that,” said Denney, whose program has appeared in seven of the nine all-time National Duals — winning five — and is 8-0 in the National Duals since losing 19-17 to Minnesota State-Mankato in the 2008 final. “There is the power that comes with good conditioning.”

            There were the typical stars for coach Mike Denney, like 133-pound senior Cody Garcia, the two-time NCAA champion, who recorded one pin, two majors and one decision over the weekend.

            “We have some great senior leadership in Cody Garcia and Jacob Marrs,” Denney said. “But then again, we have several leaders. It takes more than a couple.”

            In fact, Nebraska-Omaha — competing without 149-pound Esai Dominguez (rated fourth) and 174-pound Aaron Denson (No. 2) because of injuries — found plenty of help from their replacements. Against Newberry, UNO’s Taiten Morgan won the 149-pound match against Dale DeBacco, 5-4, as the Mavericks jumped out to a 19-0 lead before Newberry’s Curtis Chenoweth defeated Brett Rosedale — a sub for Denson — at 174 pounds.

   Newberry had a solid tourney as the team from Newberry, S.C., defeated — in order — Central Missouri, 43-3, Augustana, 18-15 and Gannon, 25-16 and featured three highly-ranked wrestlers: Griffin, Bryant Blanton (No. 1 at 184) and Matt Oliver (No. 3 at 125).

            While Blanton, who scored three falls in the National Duals, defeated UNO’s Mitch Brown for Newberry’s second and final victory, Oliver lost to redshirt freshman Terrell McKinney, 8-6.

            “He’s done a nice job for us,” Denney said of his Omaha, Neb., native, who finished 13-10 last year as an unattached wrestler. “He started coming on the last month or so. We knew that he was talented. He’s been coming on and coming on. This should give him some confidence.”

            Self-assurance was one thing McKinney did not lack against Oliver. He was not impressed with opponent’s resume, which included a No. 3 national finish by the Newberry wrestler last March.

            “I think that I practice with the best people and I don’t think anyone can beat me,” said McKinney. “Everyone works hard and no one takes a day off. We all have the goal for nationals to be the best.”

            The next big goal for the Mavericks is winning another NCAA Division II championship at the event they host, March 12-13, in Omaha.

            “This is the fifth time we will host the Division IIs,” said Denney, who is in his 41st year at UNO. “We found the key to having a lot of excitement and great attendance is for the home team to have a good team.”

            The Mavs — even without their best wrestlers — proved that at the National Duals.