Third time is the charm for Penn State men's gymnast Kevin Tan.

Two years ago as a freshman, Tan finished fourth on the rings at the NCAA Championships. The following year, in the same event, Tan became the runner-up in the event. This season, with only one loss under his belt and after winning the Big Ten rings title for the second straight year, Tan seemed destined to win the NCAA rings title.

After finishing second on the rings during the individual event qualifying session, Tan responded with a 9.762 during the event finals to win the NCAA rings title for the first time in his career.

"It's definitely a sign of accomplishment," Tan said. "This year one of my goals was to win the rings and the fact that it happened was great."

Tan became the 46th Lion to win an individual event in the NCAA Championships, which is an NCAA record.

Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson thought Tan should have won the title last year, but was very pleased that he accomplished one of his goals.

"To see him win and beat out the guy that beat him last year in the event was tremendous," Jepson said.

In addition to Tan's accomplishment on rings, he finished second on the high bar with a score of 9.625, which gave him All-America honors on two events.

"He was outstanding this weekend," senior captain Jose Palacios said. "There's no other better person on rings than him in the country."

Tan was not the only Lion who accomplished firsts in his career during the individual event finals. Junior Zack Roeder finished second on the pommel horse and vault to earn two All-America honors with career highs of 9.600 on each apparatus. Roeder's achievements signified the long road back since being cut as a freshman to suffering from mononucleosis that made him miss the first half of this season.

"It's a fairy-tale ending for me," Roeder said. Roeder's results outweighed his expectations for the weekend.

"I didn't even expect to make it to the event finals," Roeder said. "I just wanted to score as best as I could to help the team out." He even went as far to tell his family that it would be better that they come for the team event finals because he didn't think he would make it to the third day of competition.

"This year he came leaps and bounds becoming more steady in his routines and what better a time to do it than in the NCAA Championships?" Jepson said.