Gymmen look to keep road streak alive at Temple

By DARREN STEELE
Collegian Staff Writer

Opponents beware. The Penn State men's gymnastics team is out to prove it is a team to be reckoned with.

Tomorrow the Nittany Lions travel to No. 15 Temple for a dual-meet contest with the Owls and No. 12 William & Mary. Both squads are two of the weaker teams on Penn State's schedule, but the team is not taking either of them lightly.

"These guys are not among the highest-rated teams, but hey, every team counts," senior captain Tim Lashua said. "We need to keep the team whole team focused."

Penn State has remained focused enough to move up one spot in the rankings to No. 6.

A big reason for its success has come from the leadership of seniors Lashua and All-American Ron Roeder.

"Senior leadership is very important," Lashua said. "We have a young team, with the proper leadership. I think we can go top three in the nation, possibly even to the NCAA Championships."

The young Lions have been on fire of late, and have national rankings to show for it. Roeder is ranked No. 6 individually, and sophomore teammate Adam Benas is ranked No. 8 individually.

The team also has seen signs of great talent from freshman Jose Palacios.

As a team the Lions have put up some impressive statistics. Last week's final score of 225.675 against the University of Massachusetts was the second-highest total of the year, not far behind the No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes, who posted a 226.675. In addition, Penn State has proven to be tops thus far on the pommel horse (38.7), rings (38.375) and parallel bars (37.575).

Despite the high rankings, coach Randy Jepson still sees room for improvement.

"We haven't seen a whole lot of improvement on our floor exercise," Jepson said. "We're still having trouble with that one. We are going to take our time though -- we're not going to be able to remedy it in one week. We also will need our senior leadership."

Jepson also pointed, once again, to the team hitting 80 percent of its landings. Last weekend, Penn State went in with the goal of hitting 80 percent and came through.

The team has stayed virtually injury free with the exception of sophomore Dominic Brindle. Brindle has been out most of the season with an ankle injury, but will return this weekend. The sophomore is one of Jepson's three World Championship competitors.

"Brindle will be back on the horse, p-bars (parallel bars) and the rings," Jepson said. "He is not at the top of his game yet. He needs some meets under him. He will be ready when we need him to be."

This will be Penn State's third road meet of the season and if it manages a win, it will be 3-0 on the road -- quite a change from last year's road woes. After this weekend, the team can look forward to having next weekend off before hosting three consecutive meets.