The Penn State men's gymnastics team hopes to dethrone defending champ Ohio State when it competes at the 2007 Big Ten Championships tonight and tomorrow at the University of Minnesota's Sports Pavilion. In addition, the conference individual finals will be held this weekend.

For the Nittany Lions, the Big Ten Championships will allow them to shake off the rust of recent weeks. After their final regular season meet with California was cancelled because of bad weather -- the last competition for Penn State was the meet with Stanford and Iowa on March 10. Penn State finished second in that meet behind Stanford, giving the Lions their second loss of the season.

Despite its fifth-place finish last year, Penn State is expected to be one of the favorites this weekend but will have its hands full in maybe the deepest conference in the country. All six teams are ranked in the top 10, with Penn State (14-2, 3-1 Big Ten), Michigan, and No. 1 Ohio State in the top 5.

The Lions handled the depth, finishing ahead of Iowa at their last meet and defeated Illinois and a depleted Ohio State team during the season. Penn State's only conference loss was to then-No. 1 Michigan while leading the Wolverines most of the night.

A lot of Penn State's success this season can be linked to the still rings. The Lions rank No. 2 in the nation in still rings and No.1 in the pommel horse. Strong performances in the rings have won them meets alone this year. Other Big Ten coaches agreed on Penn State's strongest asset.

"They are a strong ring team," Michigan head coach Kurt Golder said. "They always have been."

Minnesota head coach Michael Burns echoed Golder's thoughts while attributing part of the success to the backgrounds of the Lions coaches.

"They are ranked high. They've had some good meets," Burns said. "[Penn State coach Randy Jepson] being a ring specialist makes them good on rings."

But for all their excellent performance on rings, the team has, at times, has struggled with routines during the year. It struggled with the high bar earlier in the season and had difficulty with landings and floor exercises of late. Jepson said that they weren't working on anything new recently, but he noted that the team was more than prepared for this weekend.

"We are still trying," he said. "We want to be sharp. But we are ready to go."

With leaders like senior Matt Cohen, making his final Big Ten Championship appearance, sophomore Casey Sandy and juniors Derek Helsby and Vladi Klurman, the Lions seem poised to retake control of the Big Ten and the nation.