The men's gymnastics team, ranked fifth in the nation, is off this weekend as it gets set for the Eastern Regionals on April 6 at Ohio State. The two weeks off from competition will give the team a chance to clear up some injuries and get set for a championship run.

The team closed out the dual-meet season on March 16 against Michigan State by posting a 283.55, its highest score of the year. Despite the score, the team still struggled with its two weakest events, the vault and parallel bars.

"We scored good through the first half of the meet," assistant coach Randy Jepson said. "Vaulting seems to be responding to work, but we have some problems on parallel bars and high bar."

Injuries have slowed rings specialist Rich Briggs and kept Mike Reichenbach from the floor exercise and vault. Both are recovering fine and practicing on there routines again.

Practices during this two-week break are focusing on consistency and refining routines, Jepson and Coach Karl Schier said. The work goes into trying to determine the nine-man lineup that will score best for the team. Jepson said that decision won't be made until regionals.

"We'll look at everybody everyday and see who will give us the best team situation," Jepson said. "We have a lot of depth which makes for difficult decisions, but these are decisions we appreciate."

Rankings released on Tuesday have the Lions placed second in the East behind Minnesota. The national poll released yesterday morning has Oklahoma (285.08) No. 1, followed by Stanford (284.92), UCLA (283.37), Minnesota (281.47) and Penn State (281.02). The second five has Nebraska (280.95), Ohio State (280.75), Arizona State (279.70), New Mexico (278.42) and Temple (277.65).

The top four teams from the East regionals and the top four teams from the West regionals will qualify for NCAAs, to be held at Rec Hall, April 18-20.

The Big Ten championships, featuring the top Eastern challengers to the Lions, were held last weekend with Minnesota taking the team title with 281.45. Ohio State (around 279) and Iowa (around 278) finished second and third.

Schier, who scouted the meet, said Minnesota won with a banged-up squad. The team's top performer, all-arounder John Roethlisberger, is still recovering from broken foot that has kept him from competing in the all-around most of the season. He captured the tournament's all-around title, showing signs that he will be ready come NCAA time.

Schier also said that Ohio State did not hit well at the meet. He was impressed with Iowa, who could be the fourth squad from the region to go to the NCAAs.

"In the East, the top three teams (Minnesota, Penn State and Ohio State) are separated somewhat from the rest," Schier said. "But nobody is that far ahead of anyone else and it will be a very competitive meet."