With a myriad of injuries to some top veterans, it was clear that somebody on the Penn State men's gymnastics team would have to step it up at the West Point Open.

Enter sophomore Kevin Donohue. His stellar performance boosted the Nittany Lions to their fourth straight victory at the event.

How's this for a weekend?

Friday night, Donohue was first in the all-around, the floor exercise, the high bar and the vault, racking up enough points to propel the Lions past UMass, which downed Penn State in their first meet of the season on Jan. 13.

Donohue was just getting started, though. In Saturday's individual competition he captured first in the floor exercise, the horizontal bar and the vault.

He was also second on the pommel horse, the apparatus that caused Penn State the most trouble in their loss to the Minutemen.

"We knew the talent was there," head coach Randy Jepson said.

"It just took a bit to get to. He's very confident right now."

Matt Abboud, also a sophomore, was second in the all-around on Friday night, which was the best performance of his Penn State career.

"With gymnasts you look for guys who are going to come out and compete when it counts," Jepson said.

"Matt did that and we think he is going to be solid for us all year."

Penn State's score of 205.40 placed them well ahead of the No. 5 Minutemen, who registered 198.95 points. Ninth-ranked Temple (195.05) was third, followed by No. 11 Army (193.9) and Navy (192.25).

Chris Lakeman won the still rings on Friday and Saturday, registering a 9.20 to capture the individual crown. Teammates Kevin Tan (9.00) and Josh Malecki (8.35) placed second and third in the event. Zach Roeder finished third in the floor exercise with an 8.80 and Tobias Ekman was third on the parallel bars with an 8.35.

The Lions are facing two tough home meets in the next two weeks, including a match-up with top-ranked Michigan on Feb. 3.

The Lions edged the Wolverines for the national championship last year.

Next weekend, they will face a hardy Army team.

"Our scores have to go up about ten points," Jepson said. "We're not even close to being where we want to be. Getting this win was nice, but now the expectations are raised quite a bit."

Jepson, last year's coach of the year, knows what it takes for his team to win. First and foremost, they have to get some veteran competitors healthy.

Team captain Dominic Brindle is still recovering from the flu, while junior Jose Palacios is nursing some lingering back pain. Ted Johnson and Lakeman, who has been nagged by a sore left elbow since November, both need to work through injuries before they can reach top form.

"Right now we just don't have the difficulty in our routines to get higher scores," said Lakeman. "What we need to work on is hitting our base routines, then putting in some tougher skills.

"We need work on our strength and stamina and we need to get more confident in what we are doing."

The men's gymnastics team doesn't sound like a group coming off a first-place finish.

"We can't afford to think that we're anywhere close to where we need to be," Jepson said.