In the end, the injuries and illnesses that limited the practice quality the past few weeks caught up with the Penn State men's gymnastics team.
The team competed in the qualifying round of the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships this past Thursday evening at the University of Oklahoma's Lloyd Norman Center in Norman, Okla., but failed to make Friday's team finals.
"I knew we weren't at our best and that we were better midseason because of the set-backs of the injuries," Penn State head coach Randy Jepson said. "We just didn't have the strength I would have hoped for and just weren't sharp enough."
The top three teams in each of the two sessions on Thursday earned the right to compete in Friday's team finals. The Nittany Lions (212.800) were edged out by Iowa (213.800) for the third spot in their group during the final rotation of Thursday's qualifying round.
Host school Oklahoma not only convincingly won its qualifying round with a score of 218.925, but it also went on to win the team title on Friday night by improving its score to a 219.300.
Defending Big Ten and NCAA champions Ohio State (218.650) finished behind Oklahoma while California (217.650), Michigan (215.050), Iowa (213.225) and Stanford (212.775) placed No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6, respectively, on Friday.
Despite a disappointing finish for the team, some individuals did shine through for the Lions. Junior Kevin Donohue and sophomore Kevin Tan both advanced to Saturday's individual event finals.
Donohue finished No. 7 in the all-around competition with a score of 53.775 and received All-American honors for the all-around. He is the first Lion in 17 years to receive All-American honors in the all-around. In Saturday's event finals, he also competed on the floor exercise (8.875) with a fifth place finish and the vault (9.287) with a fourth place finish. In addition to All-American honors in the all-around, Donohue also receive the honor on both the floor and vault. This was the first time Donohue has received any All-American honors.
"I have mixed feelings because my highest goal was for the team and we didn't accomplish that," Donohue said. "But as far as All-American, I couldn't ask for anything better."
Tan also joined Donohue in Saturday night's competition, but competed in the rings and parallel bars. He repeated his All-American status on rings by earning the silver on the apparatus with a score of 9.525 and also achieved All-American honors on the vault (8.812) with his fifth place performance.
With the team not advancing to the finals, Tan felt there was a different atmosphere to the competition.
"It was a lot different to compete with the team not on the floor. It seemed dead to me," Tan said. "I don't think I was over the disappointment (of not making the team finals) and I didn't have the motivation of wanting to help the team and not just me. It just was not as intense."
Junior Zack Roeder (floor exercise and pommel horse) and Matt Abboud (pommel horse, vault, and parallel bars) and freshmen Kyle Fernandez (rings), Steve Tobin (floor exercise) and Jerker Taudien (pommel horse) all advanced to the individual event preliminaries with Donohue and Tan, but did not qualify for Saturday's finals.
This was the biggest event the three freshmen had been in to date and they found it to be an experience like none other.
"It was very exciting. It's different because all of the teams have so much more energy than in normal meets," Tobin said. "Everyone is striving for this one meet and teams pull together more. The whole situation gives you more energy to compete."
The not-so-storybook ending to an outstanding season will provide the team, who will graduate only one gymnast, with even more motivation for next season.
"The future looks bright because this was a young team and I didn't anticipate the success we did have. I didn't know if they could achieve some of the things they did," Jepson said. "(The championship) was a great experience especially for the young guys and that will only help us in the future."
