Despite winning last week, the Penn State men's gymnastics team was not happy with its performance at Temple. This weekend, however, was markedly better.

Following the lead of senior captain Matt Cohen and sophomore Casey Sandy, No. 2 Penn State (11-0) was able to win its second consecutive West Point Open this weekend. The team finished first in all aspects of the meet except for the vault, which it finished second.

The Nittany Lions combined score (214.700) was an improvement from last year, and they finished comfortably ahead of Temple, which finished in second place with a score of (199.500).

Penn State coach Randy Jepson was pleased with the team's performance this weekend, when compared with last week.

"We did much better this week. The floor exercises looked much better, looked more polished," Jepson said.

He also said that there are some parts of the team, mainly horizontal bars, which are still lacking and need work. Jepson said that the team just needs to keep working on the bars but that these things take time to develop. He does have a method to try and improve though.

"One, you have to be physically prepared to do it," he said. "Two, you must have gone through it mentally so many times that it is natural."

Penn State also had a good showing in the individual finals on Saturday. Sandy finished first in the horizontal bar and second in the pummel, while Cohen won the floor exercise event, his second of the season. Junior Tommy Ramos won the rings event, and also finished second in the parallel and high bars.

"He's solid, sound, and doesn't miss," Jepson said of Cohen, the No. 1 all-around gymnast. "It's nice knowing we have someone who can give us a good performance when we need it."

He also spoke quite highly of Sandy too.

"Casey will need to get some more confidence, which will come with time. He has the potential to be the all-around champ this year."