Berger had a season-high score in the all-around, finishing second on the night with a 32.925 behind Waseca’s Layla Keith (32.975). Berger’s big night saw her take first on beam (8.325) and second in the floor routine (9.325), which was a personal best.

“I was very happy with how this meet went,” Berger said. “I was out for a good start of the season because of Musical and then I got pretty sick, so I felt like this was a nice comeback meet for me where I landed my floor, I had a new vault for me I got a roundoff on beam, which is the first time I’ve done it in competition this season, so I was very happy with my beam.”

The Eagles finished the night with their floor routine, which saw Berger’s best performance of the meet, making it a fitting way to put a cap on the night.

“My full [flip], that’s the hardest skill in my routine, I’ve been working on that at practice a lot, especially the landing, keeping my chest up and making sure I don’t wobble or take too many steps back,” Berger said of her floor routine Thursday. “And then my punch front [forward flip] has also been a little iffy, so I was very happy with the height I got on that today, solid landing.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Avarey Sellner competes on the beam during the Eagles’ home meet against Waseca on Thursday at the New Ulm Recreation Center.

Berger was New Ulm’s lone all-around gymnast at the meet. Finishing third all-around was Waseca’s Katelyn Weber (32.025), Hannah Parks (31.45) and Ellie Clark (30.65).

Eagles head coach Kortney Peterson said she knew Waseca would be a tough test, but she got what she wanted and expected from her gymnasts Thursday.

“I knew it would be tough today,” Peterson said. “[Waseca] had a really good meet on Tuesday. Our girls came and did their job today. We stuck several routines on beam, had some really nice floor and vault and success on bars. Most of our routines were exactly where they needed to be.”

Keith had the top score in the vault (8.8), while New Ulm’s Matilda Klawitter finished tied with Clark for second with an 8.75. Waseca’s Ellie Clark took fourth (8.725), while New Ulm’s Karli Schwab took fifth (8.7).

On bars, New Ulm’s Harlow Johnson took first (7.5), followed by teammate Aubrey Romsdahl (7.45). Weber finished third (7.225), while New Ulm’s Natalie Severson and Waseca’s Avery tied for fourth (7.2).

New Ulm took control on the beam, led by Berger, while Romsdahl finished second with an 8.2. New Ulm’s Avarey Sellner returned from an injury and scored an 8.1 to finish third, while Klawitter had an 8.075 for fourth. Clark rounded out the top five beam scores with an 8.

While Keith’s 9.475 floor routine was too much to overcome, Berger came close with her career-best performance. Romsdahl was solid also in the floor routine with a third-place score of 8.95, while Sellner was close behind in fourth with an 8.8. Weber took the fifth-place floor spot with an 8.55, while Klawitter just missed the top five with an 8.45 floor score.

“We have struggled a little bit this season with just illness and injuries, a lot of minor injuries,” Peterson said. “Avarey was back tonight, but she was in a back brace, so she’s still nursing it a little bit. Sophie was out with illness for a while, top senior Alaina Blomberg is in Rome with NUACS school right now, so I was really hoping we could just hold strong and pull together and they did that. So it was really good to see us bounce back from all those things that were happening midseason and see that we’re going to be able to catch back up where we were.”

New Ulm hosts Luverne next on Tuesday.