Mark Sohn's pommel horse moves are so original . . .

How original are they?

They are so original that, "We hand in a sheet ahead of time to the judges explaining the moves so that they know what to look for," Coach Karl Schier said.

Schier isn't joking.

Neither are the judges, who awarded Sohn a 9.9 as the men's gymnastics team, 274.45, trounced Temple, 264.45, and Kent State, 264.40, Friday night.

"I'm really happy with my routine," Sohn said. "I definitely can do better, though. The scissors can be a lot higher and my dismount can be a lot stronger. There's some more difficulty that I can fill in at the end of the routine that I didn't show tonight."

What Sohn feels he may be lacking in difficulty he covers with his own style. Schier said that the first three moves in the junior's routine are his own inventions and when they work, his career high 9.9 will be erased.

"Those first three moves are just so original, so difficult and so beautiful," Schier said. "When he nails it down exactly the way he wants it, it'll be a 10."

While Sohn may have received the award for originality, sophomore Wayne Cowden took top honors in the consistency category. Cowden tallied a 56.60 in the all-around, falling just short of Temple's Bill Roth, who scored a 56.65.

Roth won the Gene Wettstone Award for his performance, which included a 9.85 on the horizontal bar. Much of that score was due to Roth's extremely difficult triple fly-away dismount.

Cowden scored in the nines on every event and registered career highs on floor exercise (9.40), pommel horse (9.60), rings (9.65), vault (9.20) and horizontal bar (9.45). He finished in the top four on every event except parallel bars and vault.

"The all-around score is always there, but I just basically wanted to hit six (routines) for six," Cowden said. "I didn't last meet, I missed one event. I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. I knew (the all-around) was close, but that's the way it goes."

Across the first three events, the Lions seemed destined to an even bigger score. After the rings, the team score stood at 139.95, but breaks in routines on both parallel bars and horizontal bar cost the team what had the makings of a 280.

"The last three events, they're troublesome, and it really showed today," Cowden said. "I don't know what happened. We just kind of fell apart here and there."

Although Schier said that, for the most part, he was happy with his freshmen, he added that establishing their routines may be the answer for the team.

Mike Masucci managed to raise his all-around score a tenth to a 55.35, including a 9.60 on pommel horse. On the horizontal bar, however, Masucci suffered a break and could only muster an 8.3.

The other freshmen -- Jim Delaney, Raul Bonet and Jacob Wan -- competed sparingly and merely need more experience, Schier said.

"They all look like they have their programs down, but there's always something a little bit wrong," Schier said. "And that 274 score can go much better, obviously. When that happens, we'll really be happy."

Schier hopes the improvement will occur soon. Friday night the Lions will travel to meet perennial foe Iowa. Schier said that in last week's Windy City Championships in Chicago, Iowa tallied around a 270.4, similar to the Lions' opening meet score.

"This will be our biggest meet so far," Schier said. "That's going to be a really tough meet for us away from home. So, I hope we get it together really quick -- like this week."