When the men's gymnastics team takes the floor tonight for the Big Ten Championships -- the first ever for Penn State -- one thing will be on its mind: show the rest of the conference that the new kid on the block can compete with the old boys.

"There's some great competition in Big Tens, and even though Ohio State is probably the favorite, the title's up for grabs," Coach Randy Jepson said. "This is a prestigious event, and there's a lot of pride and bragging rights involved. We'd like to show the other teams that Penn State's time has come."

After scoring a team-high 283.5 against then fourth-ranked Brigham Young last weekend, Penn State (12-3) has vaulted ahead in the poll, and is currently ranked fourth in the nation and second in the Big Ten with a 282.15 average. Ohio State, the top-ranked Big Ten team, is ranked second nationally with a 285.22.

Besides Penn State and Ohio State, five teams will compete in the two-day competition and all are ranked above 11th in the national polls. Fifth-ranked Michigan State, seventh-ranked Minnesota, No. 8 Iowa, No. 9 Illinois and 11th-ranked Michigan will all meet in Huff Hall on the Illinois campus to decide the conference champion.

"All the Big Ten teams put a lot of pride into this meet, so this should be a really intense competition," Mike Reichenbach said. "Ohio State looks like the team to beat right now, but we should be right in there pushing them for the title."

Penn State's Adam Carton and Mike Masucci, ranked sixth and ninth in the national all-around, are the second- and third-ranked all-arounders in the conference. Minnesota's John Rothlisberger, ranked fifth in the nation, is considered the favorite for the all-around title.

With all seven teams concentrated within nine places and with eight all-arounders in the Top 20, the Lions expect to be in a real battle when team competition begins tonight.

"All these teams are really good, so this can be a tough meet," Masucci said. "We're pretty much really confident, and we only want to give it our best shot. If we do our best and don't win, we can't be upset."

The two days will be divided into three competitions. Tonight at 7 p.m. all seven teams will compete in the optional team event, which is a lot like a normal meet. All six gymnasts from each team will perform their normal routines on one apparatus before moving onto the next. The team title will be decided after the competition.

Tomorrow will be split into two separate meets. In the morning, the teams will proceed in the same manner around the different events, but will perform NCAA-mandated compulsory routines. After the morning routines, the individual all-around champion will be determined by combining today's and tomorrow's scores. At night, the top eight individual scorers on each event from today's competition will be chosen to perform optional routines and compete for the event titles.

The only Big Ten team the Lions haven't competed against this season is Minnesota. Ohio State pulled out a victory in Rec Hall Feb. 15, and the Lions dumped Illinois on its home floor Feb. 22. Penn State dropped meets at Iowa on March 8 and Michigan State on March 13 before winning the Michigan Invite March 14.

Even though they haven't performed as well on the road as they have at home this season, the Lions think improvements in recent weeks may provide a boost that could carry them to an impressive performance this weekend.

"Last week's meet gave us a lot of confidence," Reichenbach said. "We were consistent, and that's a big boost. Once people start to hit it gives a boost to the others and everyone starts to hit. We just want to go in and put in a good performance. Hopefully we'll show them Penn State can compete with them."