Penn State entered the team finals of the National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships with the lowest qualifying score of the six competing teams, but the Nittany Lions rallied for the title April 1 at Iowa.

Penn State was far from being the favorite in gaining the trophy after having placed sixth in the Big Ten Championships two weeks earlier. Even entering the last rotation in the national championships, Penn State was in fourth place but the Lions beat the odds and everyone else by posting a pommel horse score of 39.075 in the last rotation to win.

The clincher was the last routine of the event by senior Brandon Stefaniak, last year's defending pommel horse champion, who hit his routine and posted a 9.950. The Lions tallied a final score of 231.975, giving them the margin needed to take the throne from defending champion Michigan. Host Iowa took third.

Randy Jepson, head coach of Penn State, was surprised by his team's performance during the qualifying competition and the team final contest.

"I'm still in a little bit of shock right now," he said. "We finished sixth in the Big Ten two weeks ago, but I knew we had a great team. I knew all season long that we had the opportunity to win.

"Had we not finished sixth, I don't think we would have finished where we did tonight because that gave us the chance to look at ourselves and look at what we needed to change to be on top. We didn't let up one routine until the night was over, including the last one, and fortunately it was enough for us to get by with a win."

Stefaniak was the only Penn State performer to finish higher than fifth in a single event. Penn State's other contributors were Jose Palacios, who tied for fifth in the floor exercise; Chris Lakeman, who finished eighth in the rings; Rob Saliski, who tied for fifth in the vault; Tobias Ekman, who placed 12th in the parallel bars; and Dominic Brindle, who finished fifth on the horizontal bar.

The team effort was good enough to give the Lions their first team trophy since 1976 and their 10th NCAA title overall, one more than Illinois.

In the all-around competition, Ohio State's Jamie Natalie earned first-place honors with his 58.375 performance on all six events.

While Natalie was proud of his individual accomplishment, he was disappointed that the Buckeyes couldn't pull off the team title. "We came here to win the team championship and that didn't happen," he said.

Natalie also captured the floor exercise title with his 9.9000 performance.

Cortney Bramwell of Brigham Young repeated as champion on the rings with his 9.9500 score. And teammate Guard Young repeated his individual title from last year on the vault. The two titles were bittersweet wins for the Brigham Young competitors in the wake of the school's announcement that the men's gymnastics program will be discontinued.

Defending team champion Michigan also produced two champions, as Kris Zimmerman and Justin Toman shared top honors on the parallel bars.

TEAM RESULTS

1. Penn St., 231.975; 2. Michigan, 231.850; 3. Iowa, 231.525; 4. Oklahoma, 230.850; 5. California, 230.825; 6. Ohio St., 230.800.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

All-around: 1. Jamie Natalie, Ohio St., 58.375; 2. Guard Young, Brigham Young, 58.175; 3. Scott Vetere, Michigan, 58.025; 4. Travis Romagnoli, Illinois, 57.850; 5. Derek Leiter, Nebraska, 57.825; 6. Leo Oka, Illinois, 57.725.

Floor exercise: 1. Jamie Natalie, Ohio St., 9.9000; 2. Cody Casey, UC Santa Barb., 9.8750; 3. Ted Johnson, Penn St., 9.8250; 4. Kevin Roulston, Michigan, 9.8000; 5. Brendan O'Neil, Oklahoma, 9.7125; 6. Andrew Hampy, California, 9.6875.

Pommel horse: 1. (tie) Brandon Stefaniak, Penn St., and Don Jackson, Iowa, 9.9125; 3. Michael Ashe, California, 9.9000; 4. Cody Moore, California, 9.8250; 5. Tal Moskovitz, California, 9.7625; 6. Josh Landis, Oklahoma, 9.5500.

Rings: 1. Cortney Bramwell, Brigham Young, 9.9500; 2. Scott Vetere, Michigan, 9.9000; 3. Kenny Keener, Michigan, 9.8250; 4. Chris Lakeman, Penn St., 9.7625; 5. Jamie Natalie, Ohio St., 9.7250; 6. Dominic Brindle, Penn St., 9.7000.

Vault: 1. Guard Young, Brigham Young, 9.8250; 2. Andrew Hampy, California, 9.7875; 3. Derek Leiter, Nebraska, 9.7375; 4. (tie) Rob Saliski, Penn St., and Asher Lichterman, Nebraska, 9.7125; 6. Daren Lynch, Ohio St., 9.7000.

Parallel bars: 1. Kris Zimmerman, Michigan, and Justin Toman, Michigan, 9.9000; 3. Raj Bhavsar, Ohio St., 9.7625; 4. Jeff LaVallee, Massachusetts, 9.7000; 5. Dustin Jakub, Nebraska, 9.6625; 6. Brendan O'Neil, Oklahoma, 9.6250.

Horizontal bar: 1. Michael Ashe, California, 9.9000; 2. Travis Romagnoli, Illinois, 9.8375; 3. Brian Hamilton, Iowa, 9.8000; 4. Dominic Brindle, Penn St., 9.7625; 5. Shane de Freitas, Iowa, 9.6875; 6. Todd Strada, Iowa, 9.6750.