By Chad Purcell
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

UNO coach Mike Denney manned the tape measure, making sure there was the perfect amount of space between the mats and the stands.

Wrestlers from both UNO and Nebraska worked the floor at Qwest Center Omaha, pushing and pulling together that massive puzzle of padding.

The 2010 NCAA Division I wrestling championships were still 48 hours away, and already on Tuesday morning the atmosphere inside the city’s downtown arena felt intense.

A small army of workers buzzed about, making sure that the Qwest Center was ready to host yet another high-profile celebration of sport. Event organizers chattered back and forth, all of them happy to have the Mavericks and Huskers making sure that center stage was up to snuff.

“Having both of those wrestling teams here was a huge help,” said Stan Benis, the Qwest Center’s director of event operations. “Our guys probably could’ve figured those mats out, but they know all the little details and know how to get everything just right.”

And rest assured, officials said, all of the necessary pieces will be in place come Thursday, when Omaha becomes the center of the college wrestling universe.

When it comes to collegiate athletics, the NCAA’s Randy L. Buhr — who has overseen the wrestling championships for the past decade — calls this three-day event “the beast of all beasts.”

It’s easy to see why.

There will be 330 wrestlers here representing 77 schools. There will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 workers — be they full-time, part-time or volunteer — making sure everything that needs to get done gets done. The NCAA issued 270 media credentials for the event, and that doesn’t include the additional 110 men and women who will help ESPN televise the championships.

Then there are all of those fans, who will show up 16,000 strong for each of this weekend’s six sold-out sessions.

“Of our 88 NCAA championships, it’s one of the most — if not the most — difficult events we put on,” said Buhr, the NCAA’s associate director of championships. “Just the volume of people who are involved, and all the moving parts, and eight mats going simultaneously — it’s kind of like organized chaos. It really takes a lot to pull this off.”

Fortunately, by no means is this the first rodeo for the University of Nebraska and the Omaha Sports Commission. Both entities have an extensive history of hosting NCAA championships. That’s made everything this week go smoothly, Benis and Butch Hug agreed, as this event debuts at the Qwest Center.

“This is a big one, and there are a lot of challenges,” said Hug, Nebraska’s associate athletic director for facilities and events. “But I think that past experience definitely helps a lot, and I’m comfortable with where we are at this point.”

When the event opens on Thursday, wrestlers will compete on eight brand-new mats, ones colored blue, black or green. They were provided for the NCAA through its partnership with Resilite, a leading manufacturer of athletic mats and padding.

Come Saturday night, all the action will take place on a single mat placed atop an elevated stage at the center of the arena. Following the event, the NCAA and Resilite will donate that championship mat, valued at $10,000, to Omaha’s King Science Magnet Middle School for use by its wrestling team.

“We’re really excited to have this event in Omaha, and I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere here this weekend,” Buhr said. “There’s obviously a lot of interest in wrestling in the greater Omaha area, and I think it’s great that there are so many schools located near Omaha that have a rich history of success in the sport.”