On Saturday night at Rec Hall, Mission: Impossible turned into Opportunity: Missed for the men's gymnastics team.

Top-ranked Michigan had an uncharacteristic off night and also lost a key competitor during warm-ups. But the Wolverines edged out a 209.500-207.650 victory over an equally flat and uncharged Penn State team.

"We showed no improvement," Nittany Lion's head coach Randy Jepson said. "We had lapses of concentration and this was definitely a step backwards."

Sixth-ranked Penn State dominated on the vault (36.050), and also won the floor exercise (35.650) and horizontal bar (34.400).

The Lions lost the meet on the pommel horse (32.650) and the parallel bars (33.650).

"Our pommel horse was not up to Penn State standards," Jepson said. "We'll work on that."

Kevin Donohue, who has emerged as an early leader on an injury-plagued team, won the floor exercise (9.300) and the vault (9.250). He has captured the floor exercise at all four meets this year and the vault in the last three meets.

"I've been happy with my floor routine all year," Donohue said. "My vault is coming along and things are just coming together for me. It's nice to help the team."

Still ring specialist Chris Lakeman scored a 9.400 earning a victory on that apparatus. Despite fighting an elbow injury, Lakeman has not lost on the rings all year and is ranked first in the nation in the event.

"I've got a long way to go," he said. "I was very sloppy towards the end of my routine, but that will get better with more run-throughs."

Michigan lost tri-captain Kevin Roulston, a Lititz native, to what was termed a torn ACL suffered prior to the start of the meet. The extent ossf the injury will be determined when the Wolverines return to Ann Arbor. Roulston entered the meet ranked first in the country on vault (9.350) and fourth in the all-around (52.150).

Obviously, having a healthy Roulston would have boosted the Wolverine scores. They generally target scores in the 215.000 range.

Harrisburg native Daniel DiazLuong won the parallel bars (8.850) and the horizontal bar (9.200). Scott Vetere was the other individual winner for Michigan, posting a 9.300 on the pommel horse.

Kris Zimmerman won the Gene Wettstone award for top overall gymnast and edged out the only other all-around competitor, Penn State's Tobias Ekman, 52.050-50.300.

For the Lions, Dominic Brindle and Jose Palacios are still not completely healthy.

"If we can get a couple of guys healthy, we'll be okay," Brindle said. "We've got some time now to work on our routines and get the scores up. By the time we get to Temple we'll show a lot of improvement."

The Nittany Lions have two weeks until their match-up with the No. 18 Owls in Philadelphia.

"This meet, well, it better have lit some fires," Jepson said. "We have to take advantage of every chance, every routine. Tonight we didn't."

Yet the Lions take some solace from the fact that they stayed with the Wolverines.

"We weren't coming in thinking that we could compete with them," Lakeman said. "But I have a lot of faith in our guys and tonight we showed people that we're going to be there at the end."

The Wolverines and Lions will scrap two more times this season. Michigan will defend its Big Ten title while Penn State will defend its national title, which they won by .125 points over the favored Wolverines.

Though it's early in the season, both teams know that they will likely stand in the other's way to a national championship.

"I think we scared them a bit," Donahue said. "We showed that we're in their league. It's becoming a great rivalry."