Rec Hall gets a new decoration Saturday night. It's a nice one, too.

A 2000 NCAA Championship banner.

The most successful program in NCAA men's gymnastics history will celebrate its 10th team championship with the traditional raising of the banner at 7 p.m.

Then the Nittany Lions face a tough Army team with some solid veterans. Even though Penn State finished first at the West Point open and the No. 15 Black Knights placed fourth, the squad expects a challenge Saturday.

"No team is to be taken for granted," senior Rob Saliski said. "Certainly we feel good about this weekend, though."

This week of practice has been a transition week, with practices stepping into high gear.

"Because we got into the gym so late we used the first two meets as intersquad meets," head coach Randy Jepson said. "We want to compete at a higher level now."

The Lions are getting their routines down and adding some harder skills. Their highest score of the season, though good enough to rank them fifth in the NCAA, is still 10 points below No. 1 Michigan. Michigan visits Rec Hall next weekend for a Big Ten clash.

"What we need to do is improve every week," Jepson said. "We're still not very sharp, and we need to add some wrinkles to our routines. We're very far from being completely ready."

Jepson noted that last year's team was pretty solid at this point in the season. He's looking for the experience of his six seniors to carry this year's squad through the struggles.

Team captain Dominic Brindle makes his return on the floor exercise, parallel bars and high bar. He had been out with the flu and is still not at full strength. Junior Jose Palacios, perhaps Penn State's top all-arounder, will see limited action due to a back injury.

"Jose wants to do a lot more than I'm going to let him do," said Jepson. "We want to have him at 100 percent later in the year."

Rob Saliski, Ted Johnson and Matt Abboud will all compete despite nagging injuries.

"We're really hopeful right now that if we can rest some guys a little they'll be healthy towards the end of the year," Jepson said. "On the same token, we're getting some experience for different guys and that never hurts."

At West Point, sophomore Kevin Donohue stepped it up, winning four events in the team competition.

"We know that some guys need to step up and we all want to be that guy," said Donohue.

Gymnastics is unlike other sports in that the focus of the whole year, at least for a powerhouse like Penn State, is the NCAA Championship meet. In some respects, the rest of the meets are just building to that.

"It all comes up to one meet," said Saliski. "It only matters if you do it at the NCAAs. But we still have that competitive edge, that pride. It gets your confidence going if you have a winning record."