The music by the Penn State Concert Band seemed to set a circus mood. With seven teams competing at the same time this weekend, the Big Ten Men's and Women's Gymnastics Championships often seemed like just that -- a circus.

Under the big top of Rec Hall, the Wolverines and the Buckeyes were the ringleaders. Michigan captured the women's title with a total score of 194.850 and Ohio State took the men's with a 286.975.

Besides the fact that both of those teams have some of the nation's best gymnasts, they also had the largest cheering sections.

"There was a block of about 100 people here -- family, friends, students," Bill Simons, father of Buckeye gymnast Kip Simons, said. "We planned it back in January."

The total attendence for the weekend was 7,736 and that crowd was littered with people from all seven schools. Although each school's numbers were small in comparison to Penn Staters, the Wolverines' fans would not be denied -- on the floor or in the bleachers. They made up in vocal ability what they lacked in numbers.

At one point when the Michigan fans were screaming "Go Blue," the rest of Rec Hall decided it was time for the master of ceremonies to get out the hook and drag this act from the stage. Suddenly, "Let's go State," was being chanted by Lions, Buckeyes and Spartans.

Even if the Wolverine crowd was drowned out, Michigan Women's Coach Bev Plocki appreciated the effort so much that she mentioned it at the press conference.

"I'd like to give a lot of credit to them," she said about the Michigan fans. "Some people traveled seven hours to get here. It made a lot of difference to our kids."

Although the act was much the same at the men's meet, the Wolves were outnumbered by Buckeyes. Just as Michigan brought a cheering section for the women, Simons brought a cheering section of his own.

"I had about 50 family members here," said Simons, who placed third in the all-around. "It just gave me such a good feeling to have a few people, no, a lot of people here."

Penn State gymnast Tony Pansy also said the crowd was loud and responded well to the routines. But men's gymnastics is a sport that gets pushed out of the center ring by the women and may be in danger of being cut from the show altogether.

That can be seen by the lack of attendance for the men's events. They had a total of 3,684 fans for two different competitions, whereas the women had 4,052 in one night.

"You always wish for more attendance," Pansy said. "But there's no complaints here."

With the single-site format, the coaches and gymnasts were hoping to draw more people to the men's meet. As a former Iowa State gymnast, Minnesota Women's Coach Jim Stephenson understands the concerns of the men's program, and said the Big Ten should do anything to help.

"The imminent disintegration of men's gymastics is a critical and tragic loss," he said.

No matter what happens in the future, this circus was a raving success and all the kids --young and old -- left with smiles on their faces.