The Penn State men's gymnastics team accumulated the fifth highest score in the nation this year with its 213.2-187.55 victory against Michigan State as all six seniors shined yesterday on Senior Day at Rec Hall.

"I was happy (with our performance) and we competed a lot better than we had all year," senior captain Dominic Brindle said. "It was good because all the seniors did well."

Two events that had given the Lions trouble in past meets were the floor exercise and the pommel horse. The team performed well in both events yesterday, registering scores of 8.75 and higher in the floor exercise and 8.5 and greater on the pommel horse.

"Floor and horse (have been) two of our worst events all year. We did well in them (early today) and kept the momentum for the whole meet," Brindle said.

The Lions maintained their momentum throughout the meet. Most noticeably, five of the six seniors and sophomore Matt Abboud competed in the vault, an event in which every Lion gymnast scored a 9.0 or higher. Abboud continued his strong performance and placed first in the all-around competition with a score of 52.45.

Senior Ted Johnson was pleased with how the Nittany Lions rebounded after the Feb. 3 loss to Michigan, the seniors' first career loss at home.

"We really put it all together today," Johnson said. "It was great to end our home career on such a positive note with minimal errors and great performances."

Penn State coach Randy Jepson said the team only had deductions of half a point on four routines.

"Our big aim was to cut down on missed routines and (today) is the best we've done since last year's NCAA championships," Jepson said.

Senior Tobias Eckman finished second overall in the meet with a score of 52.3 and he spoke about the Lions' continuing improvement in the past month.

"It was great to see our team score increase about four points since our last meet (against Ohio State). We worked extremely hard over the past few weeks to make improvements on the small details of our routines," said Ekman.

Johnson also noticed an improvement in performance from previous meets.

"During the last week and also during spring break, it was nice to practice without other external pressures like classes and homework. It really allowed us to focus on our practice to improve all the minor details that had been troubling us," said Johnson.

Next on the Lions' agenda is the Big Ten Championships, which will be held this weekend in Rec Hall.

"I'm really pleased going into the Big Tens," said Jepson. "I'm really encouraged we can have a strong performance."