The men's gymnastics team fought through confusion and tough scoring to win a quadrangular meet at Temple on Saturday. The Lions competed in a format similar to last week's home meet in which performers compete at the same time and noise and confusion fill the gym.

The Lions (277.10) beat Temple (272.20), Navy (257.30) and James Madison (227.95) to capture the team title. Mike Masucci (55.30) and Wayne Cowden (54.90) finished second and third in the all-around, respectively, behind Bill Roth of Temple. Roth is a strong contender to capture the NCAA title in the all-around this April.

"Personally, I think we got robbed score-wise, but we can't worry too much about that," Masucci said. "We are so good that if we go and post our best scores, we don't have to worry about the judging. We just have to do the best we can do."

Former Lion coach Gene Wettstone, who still works with the team, echoed Masucci's thoughts about the scoring. He cited the high bar as a prime example. There, Wettstone said, the Lions hit their routines well but were left short in the scores.

"That was one of the worst jobs of judging I have ever seen," said Wettstone, who led the Lions to eight national championships in his career. "There was definitely some injustice done on the high bar."

After the first five competitors posted lower than normal scores for the high bar, Jacob Wan came on strong with a 9.3. Wan, a specialist on the high bar, has struggled early in the season but he came through at an important time.

"That was good to see," Mike Reichenbach said. "Jacob has had a tough time settling down and that should be a good confidence booster."

Another unexpected boost came from freshman Dave Riordan on the vault. Riordan took Adam Carton's spot on the team's weakest event and posted a 9.05 in his first competition of the year.

"Dave did a fine job and he will probably be competing on vault later in the year," Carton said.

"Riordan really came through with a good vault and under pressure," Reichenbach said. "He was in a pressure situation replacing Adam and he handled it well."

Carton was held from competing on the floor exercise and vault because of a sore knee.

"My knee isn't very good and it was tough because it was weak for landings," Carton said. "I wasn't as focused as I should have been for this meet.

"Overall as a team, this was another double dual meet and there was a lot going on and we could have been more focused as a team. The freshmen and guys who don't normally compete really did a good job."

A final boost came from freshman Armando Gonzalez who gave his best performance of the year so far, Wettstone said. Gonzalez, who has struggled with breaks, came through with his first solid meet.

"That was the first time he put through a good meet and it was good to see," Masucci said.

Mark Sohn broke his string of perfect 10s and scored a 9.90 to capture the pommel horse title. Sohn's average for the year so far is 10.0.

The team continued to post strong rings scores and posted a 47.50 in the event. Cowden and Mike Reichenbach finished tied for second in the event with a 9.6.

"We're having a tough time getting our routines together," Reichenbach said. "We've been adding new moves and we need to work on our consistancy and get our routines closer to where they should be."