The No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics team (14-1, 2-1 Big Ten) had an unusual weekend, at least by this year's standards.

Even though the Nittany Lions (212.800) easily handled both home team No. 15 William & Mary (191.750) and No. 13 Navy (191.700) in Williamsburg, Va. on Saturday afternoon, the victory was rather different from normal.

Two of the team's top scorers, senior Matt Cohen and junior Vladi Klurman took a rest this weekend and didn't compete. Cohen made the trip with the team while Klurman stayed home.

Junior Tommy Ramos wasn't completely healthy because of illness.

And three freshmen, Matt Greenfield, Allen Harris and Cody Carnahan, led the way for the Lions on floor exercise and the vault.

Even so, head coach Randy Jepson said there was room for improvement.

"We had some bright spots, but we had dark spots as well," he said. "Some guys went up, some went down. But it will help in the end."

One of those bright spots was junior Derek Helsby, who won high bar with a career-best 9.700. Helsby also finished in the top two in both the pommel horse and the rings, including a tie with teammate Santiago Lopez, a junior.

The meet marked the first time that Penn State competed as a team on the road since Jan. 26, but that didn't mean the Lions saw the road trip as a negative.

"It certainly wasn't [difficult] this time. It was good to have a change of scenery and get out of State College," Helsby said. "It's good to see other teams that you will see later in the season."

Penn State also got to see more action from the less-experienced members on the team, most of whom were freshmen.

That not only allowed the younger individuals to get some reps and game-time experience, but it also served as a way to show opposing teams that the Lions are a deep team.

And that depth can only come in handy as the season begins to wind down and heads closer to the NCAA championships.

"It showed the depth that we have," Carnahan said. "It's always good to send other people out and still get good scores."

The meet on Saturday was also more of a tune-up for next week's meet, which is at 10 p.m. Saturday night in Palo Alto, Calif.

The cross-country trip serves as a chance for redemption for No. 5 Stanford. Last season, the Lions edged out the Cardinal by .05 points at Rec Hall. No. 11 Iowa also will travel to the meet.

While the long trip may be a hurdle, the team said that the win in Williamsburg helped prepare it for the travel and dealing with a pro-Cardinal crowd.

"We had some guys we wanted to get some routines in. We did a good job in simple events," Jepson said.