Six representatives of the No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics team went to Las Vegas for the Winter Cup Challenge with the hopes of cashing in on the opportunity to make the U.S. Men's Senior National Team.

While two Nittany Lions made it to the second day of the competition, no current team members were selected by the national team.

Assistant coach Kevin Tan won the still rings for the second consecutive year, finishing with a two-day score of 32.300. Tan previously captained the Senior National Team at the 2006 World Championships in Denmark. He has already qualified for the senior team for 2007.

Also making it to Day Two was junior Vladi Klurman, whose best score came in the still rings, where he managed to finish in 16th place.

Klurman said that although he was competing individually without the added stress of a team competition, he still felt the same amount of pressure on his own shoulders.

"It's just a different type of pressure, knowing that I'm competing for myself," he said. "You don't have to rely on the team. You can just do well for yourself."

Also representing the Lions were senior Matt Cohen, junior Derek Helsby and freshmen Cody Carnahan and Nick Virbitsky.

"It means the program is extremely strong. Six guys come in and compete in the best gymnastics competition on the country," Cohen said. "A third of our team went, and some of our best athletes are international athletes."

Virbitsky, while not making it to the second day of the challenge, did have a strong showing Thursday night, finishing seventh on the vault.

The Winter Cup setup had the first session on Thursday night and the second session Saturday night. While that schedule meant a break for an entire day sandwiched between competing days for Tan and Klurman, the layoff did not hurt the scores of either one. In fact, both improved their score totals from the first day, and one Lion even favored having Friday off.

"It's good to have a day off. You think about a new day," Klurman said. "You gather everything, pack it in your mind, and rest up."

After a week off from team competition, the Lions will serve as host to conference rival No. 5 Illinois at 7 p.m. Saturday night in Rec Hall. The dual meet marks the second of three straight visits from a top-5 team to Penn State. No. 4 Ohio State comes to University Park on Feb. 24.