He dazzled the world with his stunning gymnastics performance at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Now, six gold medals and seven months later, the most decorated athlete of the 1992 summer games will bring his captivating style to Rec Hall.

Vitaly Scherbo will display his extraordinary talent in an exhibition performance before the men's gymnastics meet against Iowa at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

"It will be an extra incentive for those fans to get there early and get in their seats," Coach Randy Jepson said. "They won't want to miss seeing him perform."

Scherbo has not yet decided on which apparatus he will demonstrate, Jepson said. But with his versatile gymnastics ability, he is certain to enthrall the crowd on any event that he performs.

"It doesn't really matter," Jepson said of the event that Vitaly will choose. "When you win the gold, who cares what it's on."

Jepson said Scherbo has provided the Nittany Lions with a first-hand look at superior world-level gymnastics.

"It's nice to have that living and breathing in the gym," Jepson said. "The guys just look over and there it is. This is how you do it."

Scherbo has already begun to leave a strong impression on the gymnasts.

Freshman Ryan McEwen feels Scherbo's presence in the practice gym has fueled his desire to succeed in gymnastics.

"I'm wanting it more, wanting to be the best," McEwen said. "If we train like him, if we want it as bad as him, we can have it too."

And tomorrow the No. 7 Lions want to claim a victory over the No. 11 Hawkeyes in their final home meet. Currently the series record stands in Penn State's favor, 4-3-1.

"Throughout the past few years our seniors have kind of built a rivalry with Iowa," Jepson said. "It means a lot to them to go out with a win here in Rec Hall."

A final home meet victory, particularly against the Hawkeyes, would indeed mean a lot to senior Mike Masucci.

"We lost to them my freshman year, won my sophomore year, and lost my junior year," Masucci said. "Now it's time to win."

However, Iowa is echoing these same words. The Hawkeyes need to post a high score in an away meet in order to advance to the NCAA East Regionals.

Jepson realizes Iowa has the potential to upset Penn State. The Hawkeyes still scored 271.10, despite suffering almost 15 breaks, in last weekend's loss to No. 9 Illinois.

"It doesn't take anybody very long to add those up and realize that they can come in and knock us off," Jepson said.

But freshman Brandy Wood has no intention of being upended by Iowa twice in one season. Iowa's Jay Thornton overtook Wood by one place at Winternationals on Feb. 5-6.

"I want to beat them bad because (Thornton) beat me out of the big junior national team at Winters," Wood said. "So I'm pretty anxious about getting even here."

Thus, a battle between the two Big Ten powerhouses will ignite tomorrow night.

"There's a definite rival that's going to be starting up pretty soon here," McEwen said. "I've got a couple of old teammates (Hugh Lau and Aaron Cotter) that are on Iowa's team, and they really want to win this one bad."

But another familiar face to the Nittany Lions knows how tough Penn State will be.

"They're good this year, no doubt about it," said Iowa Coach Tom Dunn, a former Penn Stater who was the NCAA champion on parallel bars in 1971. "I hope it's going to be real close. And if it's not close, we'll probably be on the short end."