They may not have been completely satisfied with their performance in the Big Ten Championships, but the members of the Penn State men's gymnastics team still had some shining moments during the two-day event.

The Nittany Lions placed third with a score of 214.600 at the championship held this weekend at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Ohio State took the top honor and defended its title by scoring a 218.100, while Michigan had a score of 214.600 to take second place.

Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Health and missed routines were the Lion's main problems during the weekend competition.

The absence of senior captain Adam Benas, due to a bulging disc, and the limited ability of junior Matt Abboud because of a shoulder injury affected the team's overall performance.

The Lions also had some problems with their routines, as they missed 11 out of 36.

"We got off to a good start, but we gave away a lot of routines," head coach Randy Jepson said. "We can't miss routines and expect to be at the top."

Junior Kevin Donohue had a stellar performance for the Lions.

He finished No. 2 in the all-around competition with a score of 54.252 to Ohio State's Raj Bhavsar (56.000). Donohue also captured two individual titles on Saturday night and was named to the All-Big Ten team.

To his surprise, he took gold in the parallel bars (9.125) and the high bar (9.4375) and second on vault (9.4125) and floor (9.400).

Donohue was the first Nittany Lion to win multiple titles since 1998 when Mike Dutka won the pommel horse, vault and all-around.

"I never even expected to win parallel bars and high bar, so I am really happy with that," Donohue said. "But at the same time I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to win floor and vault."

Sophomore Kevin Tan also claimed an individual crown with the high score of 9.600 on rings and was named to the All-Big Ten team with Donohue. This is the second year that a Penn State gymnast has won the rings title, with Chris Lakeman winning it last season. Tan was pleased not only with his ring's routines, but also with what the team got out of the competition.

"It felt good to come out and hit my routines," Tan said. "It was nice to see you can do just as well on the second day because we learned we have just as good of a chance the second day as the first day."

Others who were contributors for the Lions were juniors Duke Van Vleet and Matt Abboud. Van Vleet claimed a bronze on the high bar (8.975), while Abboud placed fifth on the parallel bars (8.775).

This was the first experience at an event of such importance for the freshmen. Freshman Buc Kern reached the event finals on vault to help the team place third.

"The whole thing was really exciting," Kern said. "I think I did well in the preliminary round and did my job and helped the team. Hopefully I will do even better next time."

Despite placing third, the Lions know they still have a job at hand with the NCAA championships just two weeks away. They also know there is still plenty of hope to win the national title because of the team's past history. Each of the team's 10 national championships have come without a Big Ten championship.

"Coming in third is probably a good thing in the long run because we'll work harder," Donohue said. "Hopefully history will repeat itself."