CLEVELAND — Penn State’s record-setting performance in last year’s NCAA Championships in Philadelphia was quite a feat.
But the PSU mark — 177 team points — lasted just a year.
Cael Sanderson’s Nittany Lions set a new record this season, finishing with 181.5 team points.
PSU wrapped up its fifth consecutive team championship and its 13th in the last 15 seasons earlier Saturday.
Penn State eclipsed the old mark when Josh Barr beat Oklahoma State’s Cody Merrill, 6-3, in the 197-pound championship final Saturday night at Rocket Arena. Barr’s win padded the Lions’ team total to 177.5 points.
PSU’s Luke Lilledahl expanded the record when he won the 125-pound final by beating Marc-Anthony McGowan of Princeton by decision 2-1.
In all, the Nittany Lions had four champions in Barr, Lilledahl, Mitchell Mesenbrink and Levi Haines and two runners-up, Shayne Van Ness and Rocco Welsh.
The top-seeded Barr (24-0) scored on a takedown and reversal, and he received a penalty point when Merrill was called for interlocked hands.
Merrill was limited to three escapes.
At 149 pounds, Van Ness saw his quest for unbeaten season and first NCAA gold medal come up short.
Stanford No. 10 seed Aden Valencia scored a takedown 32 seconds into sudden victory to beat the Nittany Lions’ Van Ness, 8-5.
The competitors each had a takedown and two escapes in regulation.
The top-seeded Van Ness, who won a Big Ten championship earlier this month, beat Valencia, 10-4, in a December dual meet.
Van Ness finished his season 25-1.
Penn State No. 1 seed Mesenbrink repeated as 165-pound national champ with a 20-4 technical fall in 5 minutes, 13 seconds over No. 3 seed Mikey Caliendo of Iowa in the final.
Mesenbrink is 9-0 versus Caliendo in his college career.
Nothing could stop Mesenbrink (27-0) from his second gold medal, not even a nasty cut above his left eye.
Mesenbrink scored five takedowns and closed out the match with a third-period reversal.
Penn State 174-pound senior Haines joined Mesenbrink as a gold medalist with a tense 2-1 victory over Nebraska’s third-seeded Christopher Minto.
Haines’ points came on an escape and a stalling point. Minto scored on an escape. The top-seeded Lion finished his final collegiate season with a 26-0 mark.
Penn State’s top-seeded Welsh had his season end in a painful way as Minnesota’s third-seeded Max McEnelly slipped past him 4-3 at 184 pounds.
McEnelly had the only takedown of the bout in the first period. He also had an escape.
Welsh (24-1) was held to a pair of escapes and a stalling point.
There was a mini-upset at 285 as second-seeded Isaac Trumble of North Carolina State edged top-seeded Yonger Bastida of Iowa State by a 4-1 margin.
Trumble did all of his scoring in the third period on an escape and a takedown.
Ohio State senior Jesse Mendez, a two-time NCAA champ, came up short at 141 pounds in his quest for a third title, denied by Oklahoma State freshman Sergio Vega, who won 4-1 on a takedown with 22 seconds left in sudden victory.
The No. 2 seed, Vega finished his season 24-0. The top seed, Mendez, concluded his season 26-1.
Oklahoma State No. 5 seed Landon Robideau, who edged Penn State’s top-seeded PJ Duke in the Friday night semifinals, beat Nebraska No. 2 seed Antrell Taylor, 4-2, in the 157-pound final.
Robideau’s points came on a two-point near-fall, an escape and a stalling point against Taylor, the defending champ at 157.