On Wednesday during the last practice before the NCAA Championships, four words stood out among the rest on the chalkboard in the White Building Gymnastics Facility. Those words -- prepare, believe, execute and win -- describe what the Penn State men's gymnastics needs to do in order to win its 11th National Championship.

Coming off their first Big Ten title, the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 2 in the country and is the top seed in the first session of the team qualifier. But the Lions cannot look passed the qualifying session as they did last season with not even making it to the team finals.

"The first day we just have to be in the top three and try to be as clean as we can and smart so we have energy for the second day," Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said. "When you make it to the second day anything can happen and we have to do our best."

The Lions will have to have solid performances while competing against the top 12 teams in the country. It will also be a repeat of the Big Ten Championship with all six teams earning bids to the NCAA Championships.

"It's great that all of the Big Ten teams made it," Jepson said. "It's like that every year and it just makes the conference championship more special." One team that might stand in the way of the Lions' undefeated season is the defending national champions, the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners enter as the top team in the country with the nation's longest winning streak at 32 meets. In addition, they are coming off an NCAA-record 223.50 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference Championship. Although the Lions have not faced Oklahoma this season, the Sooners have an advantage over the Lions because they have competed in and won the team finals last season.

"I think the thing that they have on us is having experience and being there last year," Jepson said. "But this is a different year and anything can happen and we want to be there ready to get the job done."

The Lions have the confidence from winning the Big Ten going into the NCAA Championships, something that they haven't experienced since joining the conference. They also have the luxury of being close to home with the meet at Temple University. Jepson said he hopes there is a partisan crowd there for his team.

No matter what the outcome is this weekend for the Lions, one thing is for sure: it will be the last meet as a Lion for seniors Matt Abboud, Kevin Donohue, Jay Kim and captain Jose Palacios.

But they won't think about that until they accomplish their task at hand.

"We just have to go there, stay as a team, hit our routines and everything will turn out OK," Kim said. "I don't think it will hit us that it was our last meet until the ride home."