Although "a win is always welcome," the men's gymnastics team (7-0) is looking for something more substantial in its meet tomorrow night at Ohio State.

When the seventh-ranked Lions head to Columbus to take on the No. 1 Buckeyes, they hope to gain national respect by the end of the evening.

Although the team is undefeated, it still finds itself struggling for recognition because of its youth. Of the 10 gymnasts on the squad, six are freshmen or sophomores, making the Lions among the youngest teams ranked in the Top 20.

"(The younger guys) don't know what it's like to go to a hostile away floor and possibly be even the better team there and lose," team captain Kurt Schier said. "If we can beat Ohio State the only thing that it really means is that our team is the caliber that can beat the number one team. It doesn't mean that we go number one."

The Lions posted their highest score of the season last weekend against Navy, scoring a 275.95, but still lag behind the Buckeyes' 279.30. While the difference between the two teams is a considerable one, sophomore Adam Carton pointed out that judging is always subjective. The scoring in the Mid-East Region tends to be more lenient than what the Lions experience in Rec Hall, Carton said, and the Lions may see their team score go up in Ohio.

"Since they are number one, it's not super important that we beat them," Carton said. "But it is important that we all go out and hit our routines. We need to get consistent like that so when we go to NCAAs, we'll show a good team."

Along with national respect, Penn State also will try to regain some self-respect from the Buckeyes. Last season, the Lions fell to 5-3 when Ohio State upended them, 278.75-278.70, at Rec Hall.

"I'd really like to beat them because of the fact that they beat us by so little last year on our own floor," sophomore Mark Sohn said. "This year, it would be really nice to go in there and show everyone in the nation what we can do against a team that's supposedly ranked number one."

Sohn currently is ranked first on the pommel horse with a 9.80 average.

Besides scores, the Buckeyes have another key advantage over the Lions -- depth. While Penn State is able to place six men on each event, those six scores are not all above a 9.0 yet. Ohio State, on the other hand, discounts scores in the low nines.

"They have so much depth that they can afford ups and downs, flus and everything else and still turn in good scores," the elder Schier said. "With us, even a hangnail eats into our team score very rapidly. And we've had much more than hangnails."

While the odds appear to stack up against the Lions in the team competition, they remain confident. Individually, the two teams possibly could be neck-and-neck. Ohio State's top all-arounders, Gil Pinto and Mike Racanelli, currently are ranked second and third in the nation respectively with Carton fourth. Carton also is ranked fourth on the still rings and in the top 20 on all other events except the high bar.

"It's a very interesting time period for Adam," the elder Schier said. "It hasn't been a barn-burner preparation period for him. He's still not feeling well and his ankle is still giving him problems.

"Of course, he keeps coming up well for all of the meets, but my experience tells me that sooner or later it'll catch up to him."

Even if Carton's luck runs out against Ohio State, the Lions expect to finish the meet well as a team.

"If we beat them, it can only get this team more motivated as to what it can really do," Sohn said. "If we lose to them but still hit well, it'll show to the team that we can compare to people like that. I don't think anything bad can come out of this meet."