Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson knew his team had to come out right away and blow Ohio State out of its home gym.

It was important for the No. 4 Nittany Lions (5-1, 1-1 in Big Ten) to have a strong pommel horse performance in the first rotation if they wanted to upset the No. 2 Buckeyes.

Unfortunately for Jepson and his squad, gymnast after gymnast fell off the pommel horse, causing the once-undefeated Lions to lose to Ohio State, 216.900-209.050.

Once the first rotation on the pommel horse ended, Jepson knew it was going to be a long Saturday night.

"The first event took us out of it right away," Jepson said. "We had 12 falls overall; it was dismal."

The Lions scored a 30.950 overall score on the pommel horse, four points lower than the Buckeyes.

Jepson said it was hard to watch his squad compete in an event it had been so good in all year and not perform up to potential.

"It was like a snowball effect," Jepson said. "One guy went, then another went and another."

The Lions managed to keep it close throughout the rest of the meet, even winning the rings competition.

Junior Matt Cohen and sophomore Tommy Ramos tied for first in the rings with a score of 9.550, with junior Derek Helsby finishing third.

Helsby won the overall competition with a score of 50.400, with Cohen finishing .050 behind in second and freshman Shaun Antonio in third.

But those were only some of the positives in a night that Jepson described as frustrating.

"We played the No. 2 team in the country who I think is not even better than us," Jepson said. "We just didn't perform well."

Historically, the Buckeyes are the only team to have a winning record over Penn State, with a 24-22 lead in the all-time series.

Jepson attributes this to both teams staying strong throughout the years and stepping up when they play each other.

"We've both always had strong teams," Jepson said. "It's a good rivalry for these guys."

With Big Ten and NCAA Championships coming up next month, Jepson will get his team back in the gym to practice for the upcoming events.

He said the team just needs to keep preparing for the future contests and that it should learn from this loss.

"We just have to have some good mettle in practices," Jepson said. "We just have to have good preparation."

Now the once-undefeated Lions join many teams around the country in knowing what a loss feels like.

With a home meet against William & Mary on Saturday, Jepson and his team will keep things business as usual in practice.

"We just need to keep practicing," Jepson said. "We just need to keep having fun and keep competing."