The men's gymnastics team headed west this past week expecting to battle some of the top teams in the nation, but instead found itself fighting a much more debilitating foe: Inconsistency.

After improving its scores every meet this season, Penn State hit a funk while on its tour of the great Midwest, dropping two of its three meets against Big Ten opponents and suffering from lackluster performances throughout the week.

The Lions (8-3) spent their entire Spring Break sleeping in hotel rooms, eating in unfamiliar restaurants and practicing on foreign equipment, and their performances reflected the bothersome conditions they were forced to endure.

"This was just a rough week," Mike Masucci said. "We had opportunities to do well but we didn't capitalize on them. We just got thrown out of sync. We've got the firepower, but right now it's just a matter of everyone putting it together at the same time."

Fifth-ranked Penn State opened its trip March 8 in Iowa City, Iowa, home of the No. 7 Iowa Hawkeyes. The Hawkeyes pulled out the victory despite a career-best all-around performance by Masucci, who took second with a 57.3. Adam Carton took fourth with a 56.55 and Iowa's Chris Kabat scored a 57.35 to win the all-around.

Masucci scored a 9.7 on the floor exercise, which at the time was his career-best, to win the event. Team captain Rich Briggs notched a season-high 9.75 on the rings to pick up his first event victory of the season, and Mark Cooper won the vault with his career-best 9.6.

"We had some bright spots and we had some not-so-bright spots," Coach Randy Jepson said. "Against Iowa we were pretty rough, and the breaks on pommel horse, high bar and parallel bars hurt. It was disappointing because we weren't that consistent, but that could be attributed to the fact that we didn't have great training conditions."

After having to stay and practice in Iowa City, the Lions headed to East Lansing, Mich., for a Friday night showdown March 13 with sixth-ranked Michigan State.

Penn State, led again by Masucci and Carton, swept the top four places in the all-around, but could not withstand the balanced Michigan State squad, which squeaked out a 281.6-281.05 victory.

Masucci, ranked seventh in the nation in all-around, scored a 56.5 against Michigan State to pick up the victory. No. 5 Carton, who scored a 55.8, took second place, Wayne Cowden (55.35) took third and Mike Reicenbach earned fourth with his 54.95.

But, once again, major breaks eroded any hopes Penn State had of adding another digit to the "win" column. The Lions suffered two breaks on the floor exercise, two on the pommel horse, one on the vault and three on the horizontal bar.

"We just weren't consistent," Jepson said. "This team is ready to burst up to the 284-285 mark but we're still piddling around 281-282. We have to be able to score in the 284 range if we want to compete in the NCAA finals."

Penn State returned to its winning ways the following afternoon when it competed in the Michigan Invite. The Lions scored a 281.6 to win the tourney, easily outdistancing second-place Michigan, which scored a 278.4, and third-place Kent State, which scored a 273.75.

Carton won the all-around after scoring a 57.4, and Masucci finished fourth with a 56.25. Masucci and Reichenbach both scored 9.75s to tie for the floor exercise victory and set career-best marks for that event. Freshman Joel Neuwirth also scored a career-high in the Michigan Invite, putting up a 9.75 to finish second on the pommel horse.

Cowden nailed a 9.8 on his rings set to pick up the event victory and Masucci and Briggs both scored 9.7s to tie for third place. Carton won the parallel bars with a 9.55 and Briggs scored a 9.4 and finished in a five-way tie for second.

"I'm kind of disappointed, because we're definitely better than these teams and when it comes time for Big Tens, Regionals and Nationals we'll show them who's on top," Masucci said. "I'm mad that we lost, but it doesn't matter until the big meets and then we'll show them Penn State can do it when it counts."

Jepson also believes in the Lions' potential for improvement and is looking at this past week as a stepping stone for greater things to come.

"I would have liked to have a better team hit in these meets," he said. "We're looking for scores in the 284s. If we don't, we'll have some difficulty in the NCAAs. But we have a lot of room to make improvement where others don't."

Because of the women's basketball game recently scheduled for Saturday, March 21, the men's gymnastics meet against BYU has been rescheduled to start at 4:30 in Rec Hall.