The lights were off, the doors were locked.

And no one was in sight at the gymnastics room in the White Building on Wednesday.

On a typical Wednesday afternoon, the gymnastics room would be filled around 2:30 with gymnasts flying through the air on the vault or holding themselves up on the pommel horse.

But this Wednesday, the No. 6 Nittany Lions were nowhere to be seen, as they were getting ready to travel to Norman, Okla., for the NCAA Championships, which officially began yesterday at 2 p.m.

The Penn State men's gymnastics team, which competed in the first rotation yesterday, expects to continue on to compete tonight and send as many gymnasts as possible to the individual events tomorrow.

All season long the team has been talking about making it to the NCAA Championships,

They've called each meet a stepping stone to the ultimate goal.

"We have a good mix of guys who have been around," Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said before the season started. "With the new rules and injuries, it's going to be a free-for-all to start."

With the team already dreaming up NCAA aspirations in January, the next progression was competing.

The first meet was at Army where the Lions defeated the Black Knights easily,

That's where Jepson saw a lot of promise in his young squad.

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

So the team returned to the gymnastics room and went on to win the next three meets in a row on the back of freshman Casey Sandy. Sandy won the overall in every event he competed in and was on pace for a record-breaking season.

Then unforeseen hardship fell on the team.

After a season-ending shoulder injury, the team was without its star.

The road to the national championships took a major speed bump, but the Lions would have to go on.

After the team's win at the Bryce Jordan Center against Stanford, Jepson had to change the practices to get the squad ready for the following months.

"We've been training our bodies to get ready for routines for two days and maybe even longer," senior captain Chad Buczek said earlier in the year.

With the season winding down, the Lions saw the championships coming closer and closer and had to learn to adjust to the three-day competition.

Buczek was a member of the 2004 national championship team and will be competing for the last time.

By enduring practices based on quality not quantity, Buczek, junior Matt Cohen and sophomore Tommy Ramos feel that they are finally ready for the big event.

Two weeks ago, Ramos won the Big Ten title on the rings and is the key to the Lions' attempt for their twelfth National Championships.

As Oklahoma University unlocks its doors and turns on the lights in its gym, the Lions hope to show off what they have been practicing towards all season.

"We are ready to finally peak at the NCAAs," Matt Cohen said.

Now he will finally have his chance.