Injuries and the adversity they cause are an accepted part of sports. But for the Penn State men's gymnastics team, it's getting a little ridiculous.

They have been without the services of senior Adam Benas all year, and have gotten only limited routines out of team captain Dominic Brindle and top all-arounder Jose Palacios.

Sophomore Kevin Donohue stepped in and led the team to victories at the West Point Open and in a home meet against Army.

In four meets this season he won the floor every time he competed, the vault three times and the horizontal bar twice. Because of those stellar performances, he was named top gymnast at West Point and was Big Ten Gymnast of the week.

Donohue is done until at least the end of March after injuring ankle ligaments last weekend at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas. Another sophomore who has been scoring well for the team, Matt Abboud, will not compete on floor or vault until then because of a similar injury.

So when the Nittany Lions take on No. 13 Temple at McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia tomorrow at 3 p.m., the goal is clear.

"We want to walk out of this meet healthy," Penn State head coach Randy Jepson said. "Wins are great, but we need the guys to be healthy."

The Lions shouldn't have much trouble with the Owls, who are scoring around 202 points a meet. The Lions are averaging 206.925 points and should raise that average with some new, tougher routines this weekend.

"These two weeks of practice have been good," senior Chris Lakeman said. Lakeman won the national title on rings last weekend in Las Vegas and was named Big Ten co-gymnast of the week.

"We did some regrouping and added harder skills. We see what other teams are doing and we're refining our team."

Penn State has been weak on pommel horse all year, something Jepson said they have worked on in practice this week.

Palacios and Brindle will see more action this weekend, as both have the goal to be ready for the Big Ten Championships on March 23-24.

"We're getting into shape now," Brindle said. "We're expecting our numbers to go up."

The Owls are coming off two wins last weekend against Army and Southern Connecticut. Sophomore Alex Weber won the pommel horse and the parallel bar, which was enough to earn him ECAC Gymnast of the Week honors.

"Temple has some guys that will put up points," Donohue said. "But if our guys go out and hit routines, we'll be fine."

Though Jepson is concerned about the recent rash of injuries, he thinks it will help his younger gymnast to develop by performing in pressure situations.

"We need to get more confidence as a team," he said.

"The guys have to realize that things like this happen and what matters is how you deal with them."