Returning to competition after a year and a half of recovering from an injury usually makes for a rough meet, but Adam Benas wasted no time proving he was back in top form.

"I was excited to get back into competing," the senior captain said. "I was a little surprised that I hit my high bar set because I haven't trained well, but I was able to put it together."

Benas placed first in the high bar and the rest of the No. 6 Penn State men's gymnastics team won the West Point Open for the fifth consecutive year with a score of 209.500. The University of Massachusetts finished second with a score of 204.000.

Sophomore Kevin Tan and junior Matt Abboud also earned first place finishes in the two-day event.

Tan picked up a victory by posting a 9.600 on the rings on Friday and Saturday. The Nittany Lions were dominant on rings with Tan, Abboud and freshman Kyle Fernandez all advancing to the event finals.

"Rings were the highlight of the night. This makes him (Tan) a serious threat to win it all (national championship)," head coach Randy Jepson said.

Parallel bars were the high point

for Abboud as he pulled out a first-place finish with a score of 8.800 on Saturday to improve his Friday score of 8.650.

However, pommel horse was a struggling point for the Lions. None of the Penn State gymnasts in the event were able to execute their routines and know what they need to work on in practice during the week.

"We really need to stress pommel horse this week," Jepson said. "We have good routines, we just need more confidence in them."

Several other gymnasts were big contributors for the Lions. Junior Duke Van Vleet qualified for the finals in all of his events, highlighted by a third-place finish on the high bar with a score of 8.850.

"He had his best meet at Penn State. It was nice to see four good rotations from him since he had some rough times," Jepson said.

Junior Kevin Donohue was another gymnast who had a big event. He finished with second-place performances on parallel bars (8.700) and the floor exercise (8.900).

"I was disappointed with myself on Friday, but I redeemed myself and did much better on Saturday," he said.

The freshmen who participated in the Open were finally able to show off their talents in their first collegiate meet. Besides Fernandez, freshman Adam Pierce also qualified for an event final. He was the Lions' top finisher on the vault (9.200) on Friday.

"This meet gave me a good indication that we can count on the freshmen," Jepson said. "I saw more confidence than I expected, which says more than scores."

Senior Jose Palacios hurt his ankle while performing a dismount on the floor exercise and will have to sit out for an unspecified amount of time.

The full use of the new training facilities at the White Building proved to be a huge advantage for the Lions. Even though they had a rough start to the meet, they were able to post a higher score than last year.

"Having the gym all summer and fall was big help because we spent so much more time training," Van Vleet said. "We can't help but get better."