The future of Penn State men's gymnastics has finally arrived in the form of the 5-foot-6 body of freshman Casey Sandy.

Sandy, competing in his first collegiate event, won the all-around competition against No. 11 Army Saturday outright with a score of 52.650.

The big performance spurred the No. 5 Nittany Lions on to win the event in West Point, N.Y., 206.650-199.150.

Normally the storied rivalry between Penn State and Army would be the talk of the meet, but it was the freshman that made the most noise in his collegiate debut.

"Casey Sandy really showed us a lot," Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said. "He just did an outstanding job."

Sandy finished second in the pommel horse (9.000), vault (9.150) and the high bar (8.450), and took third in the floor exercise (8.700).

The Lions fed off of Sandy's scores, and used that momentum throughout the entire day.

Though the team only finished first in three events, it took a team effort to defeat Army in five of the six events on the day.

"We got a lot of points early on," Jepson said. "Our pommel horse team really led the way especially Justin Miklos."

Miklos, a junior, won the pommel horse competition with a score of 9.150.

The Lions shut out Army from the top three spots in the parallel bars thanks to a trio of underclassmen, with Sandy and Shaun Antonio tying for first.

Sophomore Derek Helsby finished third in the event and second in the all-around scoring with a score of 50.650.

Jepson was very excited to see the team's freshmen excel early on in the first competition of the year.

"With all of the team's injuries, we have to see what works," Jepson said. "With the new rules this year, we're seeing a new element of competition."

These new rules, based on the scoring of events, give the judges a new way of ranking the gymnasts.

Captain Chad Buczek adjusted to the rules well by tying Sandy in the vault competition.

Buczek, a junior and one of the few upperclassmen on this Lions' squad, is expected to show Sandy and the rest of the freshmen on the team what gymnastics at Penn State is about.

Jepson hoped that Sandy and the freshmen learned a lot from this competition, but feels the team could always use more practice.

"I hope the team got a lot out of our win today," Jepson said. "We just have to continue to train."