PITTSBURGH – Just 46 people had won three NCAA wrestling titles in the history of the sport, and only two of those athletes were from Penn State. That list on Saturday night in just three hours at PPG Paints Arena quickly grew to 48 and four.

Penn State had clinched its fourth straight team title and eighth crown in nine years hours earlier and the Nittany Lions only had to concentrate on individual efforts in the NCAA's marquee wrestling event.

And concentrate they did. Heavyweight Anthony Cassar was in the leadoff role instead of the closer and he turned into a heavy hitter during his 10-1 major decision over Derek White of Oklahoma State, the only wrestler to put a mark on Cassar's 34-1 record this season.

He wasn't alone. Jason Nolf (157) and Bo Nickal (197) each became three-time champions, the school's third and fourth.

But the night wasn’t perfect, either. Vincenzo Joseph, a two-time defending champion, was upset by freshman Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech at 165, and defending champion Mark Hall was beaten by nemesis Zahid Valencia at 174 as Valencia won his second title at Hall's expense.

It was still a blue-and-white Penn State night in a black-and-gold Pittsburgh arena as the Nittany Lions finished with 137.5 points, far outdistancing Ohio State's 96.5 total.

But Cassar started things off in fine fashion. The chiseled 228-pound 'light' heavyweight went heavy-duty on a second-period single-leg takedown shot that drove White to his back and gave Cassar a 6-0 lead that he eventually extended.

He got giant hugs from head coach Cael Sanderson and assistant coaches Jake Varner and Casey Cunningham after he dropped to his knees and pointed skyward. He quickly lowered the straps of his singlet, tossed off his shoes and jogged through the arena and back through the hallways of the arena, where good friend and teammate Shakur Rasheed was waiting with a hug of his own.

"I felt him (White) hesitant right off the bat. It was my mat to score and do whatever I pleased to him. So I felt that in the first period and he was getting super tired. I was keeping my pace up, moving my feet and hands,'' Cassar said.

"It might not mean a lot to you but it gets them real tired. I could go all day. They don't want to go to the second, third period with me if I move my hands and feet. That's what happened in the first period. Then I went for it in the second."

And he got it, thrilling thousands of Penn State fans among the nearly 19,000 on hand. He added another when White shot and Cassar countered and slipped around to immediately belly out White and cause yet another favorable crowd reaction.

"I've got to be smart. These are some big boys. And I don't want to get caught under them,'' Cassar said. "I learned that from my shoulder injury that I have to be smart with my finishes and my attacks. And that's kind of carried over to my style. And so if I go, I'm going hard. And nine times out of 10 I'm going to get that attack. I'm a little patient but if I go, you're going down."

That's Nolf's thinking as well. Nolf for the third time thumped Nebraska's Tyler Berger, 10-2. Nolf, from nearby Kittanning, went right to work, converting on a single-leg for a quick two and then trapping the far knee of Berger on a second shot and driving him to his back for a 2-and-2 and a 6-1 lead. Another takedown and a punishing third-period ride set the final.

"I don't know if it's adrenaline, but when I get on the big stage I think I do a lot better and I just compete at a higher level," Nolf said. "I give the same effort and attitude; I just compete better.

"But just knowing that the crowd was behind me gave me joy in knowing that I put my heart into this sport and into the things I love, and you can kind of start to see things pay off. So it kind of puts a smile on your face."

Nickal was much more conservative than usual, waiting until just a few seconds remained in the opening period to strike for a takedown and scoring late by locking up a cradle and holding Ohio State's Kollin Moore for the final 20 seconds to secure his 5-1 win and third straight title.

They held the Nickal-Moore match until the final bout. "I like being the last match," Nickal said. "It's something that's exciting for me and it's just fun. I get to feel a little more pressure and a little more hype around it. That's something I enjoy."

Joseph was beaten by, well, a Joseph clone. Stocky and strong, Lewis upended the two-time champ just like Joseph knocked off Illinois' Isaiah Martinez in 2017 and 2018. But this time, Joseph was Martinez.

Anything he did, Lewis was able to counter, and the muscular freshman who is a reigning Junior World champion, slapped a second-period cradle on Joseph so tight that he just held it for about 20 seconds to pick up an easy four.

Joseph did all the shooting after that in an attempt to close the gap and catch up, but Lewis was too strong and athletic and countered a late Joseph shot for another takedown of his own.

Lewis said he knew Joseph's style of stand-up and pounced on it with the cradle. "And as soon as I felt that I was getting it locked up and he was trying to fight out of it sort of, I just went with it. It was, like, a natural feeling, just natural," Lewis said.

Hall was denied his second title in his third finals appearance, and each time by Arizona State's Zahid Valencia, this one by a 4-3 score.

Hall opened with a relatively easy takedown but nothing came easy after that. Hall escaped in the second period but was taken down and ridden out. A Valencia escape in the third provided the winning margin and he prevented any additional Hall shots.

"I think I felt a little bit what he's feeling right now," Valencia said. "Being No. 1 is tough. You have a huge target on your back, even though sometimes I like to say that I don't. He doesn't, he just relaxes. But it does eventually wear on you.

"And I could see it before I even stepped on the mat that he was worried, he was scared, because he's wrestling, he's been wrestling all week to not lose; I've been wrestling to win. So being offensive in the sport of wrestling over defensive is going to win pretty much every time."

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson was empathetic toward the disappointment that Joseph and Hall were feeling, and he thought, too, that because his team had clinched the team title earlier in the day that the Lions weren't quite as sharp as they could have been at night.

"I like it when they have the edge a little bit and there's a little edge to pressure. That just heightens the nerves a little bit and gets you focused,'' Sanderson said. "We all have a choice out there and the opportunity to go out and take advantage of every second we have on the mat regardless of the circumstances.

"You can't blame anything other than ourselves. Mark Hall just wrestled a really good kid. They've gone back and forth and are two of the best wrestlers in the country.

"Vincenzo, I thought he wrestled a great tournament and just got beat. He gave up four points to a tough kid,'' Sanderson said.

OTHER FINALS: Iowa's Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional) pleased his hometown crowd with a 5-0 win over Virginia's Jack Mueller at 125 while Penn State transfer Nick Suriano had to use an overtime takedown and survive a challenge about grabbing headgear to knock off top-seeded Daton Fix of Oklahoma State, 4-2, at 133. Suriano became Rutgers' first NCAA champion. … Cornell's Yianni Diakohimalis also needed overtime to upend Ohio State's Joey McKenna, 6-4, in a well-wrestled match at 141. … Rutgers didn't wait long to win another title as Anthony Ashnault dominated Ohio State's Micah Jordan 9-4. … Drew Foster became Northern Iowa's first champ in 19 years when he downed Cornell's Max Dean 6-4 at 184. … Attendance for the finals was 18,950 and total attendance was 109,405.

2020 OLYMPIC TRIALS AT PENN STATE: Former Penn State wrestler David Taylor announced at a Penn State alumni function Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh that the 2020 Olympic Trials will be held at Bryce Jordan Center.

That drew a mixed reaction among the nearly 300 people on hand at Buford's Kitchen; the vast majority spoke and then athletic director Sandy Barbour, when she spoke, laughed that she didn't know that that was going to be made public just yet.

USA Wrestling spokesman Gary Abbott said that an announcement would be coming at some point, and possibly soon, but that there are still a lot of working parts involved before an official announcement can be made.

FINALS RESULTS

285: Anthony Cassar, Penn State major dec Derek White, Oklahoma State, 10-1.

125: Spencer Lee, Iowa dec Jack Mueller, Virginia, 5-0.

133: Nick Suriano, Rutgers dec Daton Fix, Oklahoma State, 4-2 SV-2.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell dec Joey McKenna, Ohio State, 6-4 OT.

149: Anthony Ashnault, Rutgers dec Micah Jordan, Ohio State, 9-4.

157: Jason Nolf, Penn State maj dec Tyler Berger, Nebraska, 10-2.

165: Mekhi Lewis, Virginia Tech dec Vincenzo Joseph, Penn State, 7-1.

174: Zahid Valencia, Arizona State dec Mark Hall, Penn State, 4-3.

184: Drew Foster, Northern Iowa dec Max Dean, Cornell, 6-4.

197: Bo Nickal, Penn State dec Kollin Moore, Ohio State, 5-1.