The men's gymnastics team encountered an unfamiliar horse this weekend at Syracuse.

"It was a different pommel horse than what we were used to -- it was a different brand of pommel horse," Coach Randy Jepson said. "Most of the time we'll compete on AAI and they had a Speith. It tends to be a little softer and when you swing, the pommels are a little higher."

Although the Lions struggled through their pommel horse rotation, they walloped the Orangemen overall by a score of 279.2-269.95.

Tom Ellefson was one of the gymnasts affected by the foreign apparatus. Three quarters of the way through his routine, he fell off the pommel horse.

"I was the last person up, too," the freshman said. "It was kind of up to me . . . It was going great, then I just hit my leg and fell off."

Ellefson was disappointed, but he did finish his routine scoring a 8.9. His routine ended the Lions' rotation on the pommel horse -- a rotation that they were ready to forget. However, they did move on. Through the remaining four events, the Lions found a momentum that carried them to victory.

"We picked up the pace pretty well on rings and then really, really well on vault and p-bars and high bar," Ellefson said. "We ended up scoring a total of 48 on high bar, which is really good for a team score."

The team score was the highest a Penn State squad has earned since a new scoring system was implemented in 1992. Exceptional individual performances influenced the final score. Junior Dave Riordan, who was competing in front of his hometown fans, performed the highest-scoring vault of his college career.

"It was great to see Dave Riordan," Jepson said. "He's been capable of performing that way on vault before, but he really put in a good vault."

Riordan was not the only gymnast to earn a career high, as Wood also scored a college-career best.

"I scored my highest ever on rings, 9.45 -- highest here in college anyway," Wood said.

In addition, Ellefson tied his carrer-high score on the high bar. The last time he scored a 9.8 in that event was a few years ago in the Junior Nationals. Rounding out the list of individual accomplishments was junior Mark Cooper's second-place finish in the all-around.

Although Jepson was proud of his squad's performance, as a team and individually, he does see some room for improvement before Saturday's meet with Temple --especially on the pommel horse.

"I really feel that pommel horse is one of our best events . . . nonetheless, you've got to be able to hit routines regardless of what you're on," he said. "You can be on something in the playground; if you raise your hand at a judge, you better be able to hit your routine."