ABOVE: Martin County Magic gymnast Adrianna Knafla competes on the uneven parallel bars Friday night during an away Big South Conference gymnastics meet with New Ulm at the New Ulm Recreation Center. Photo by Travis Rosenau/New Ulm Journal.

NEW ULM — With how strong of a season the Martin County Area Magic gymnastics team has been having, the New Ulm Eagles knew they’d need their best from everyone to secure a Big South Conference win on Friday night.

Even with a season-best score from the Eagles, however, the Magic were just a bit sharper in the end as they held on for a 134.775-134.75 victory.

Magic head coach Anne Post expected a competitive meet coming into Friday. What she didn’t know, however, was that it may have been just one good jump or clean landing that sealed the win for her team.

“I definitely knew it was going to be close,” Post said. “They’ve been scoring a couple points under us and then as the meet started, we progressed through it, I definitely knew it was going to be close. I didn’t know it was going to be that close, but we’ve been working really hard on just perfecting what we have already. So, I knew that we would be solid as long as we hit that.”

Magic freshman Lillie Schultz was a big difference-maker for her team in their narrow win as she finished second all-around with a score of 34.625. That score included a season-best and first-place score on the beam (9.325), a first-place finish in the vault (9.2) and a second-place finish in the floor routine (8.85).

Taking third all-around was Montgomery (34.025), while New Ulm’s Sophia Berger took fourth (32.8). The Magic’s Nola Thedens took fifth all-around with a score of 31.85.

Her team didn’t come up short due to a lack of effort, but Eagles head coach Kortney Peterson said she was happy overall with their season-high score.

“We’re still down Avarey Sellner, she’s actually been out sick now this week, but it’s our season high and we had four really nice beam routines as well,” Peterson said. “We did the best we could, honestly. Few little mistakes here or there could have made that 0.25 difference, but I’m overall happy with our meet.”

Josie Sellner, still not quite 100% for the Eagles as she continues to recover from a knee injury, didn’t let anything slow her down Friday as she competed in all four events again and took first all-around with a 34.975.

Josie Sellner took first with an all-around score of 34.375 this past Tuesday at home against Jackson County Central in her four-event return, but she amped things up Friday.

“She did all the events on Tuesday, but we watered them down a little bit,” Peterson said. “So we took a couple of things out just to stay off the knee a little bit, so she did all of them [Tuesday], just not to her full potential. … It’s just a reoccurring injury for her, so nothing super serious or going to be season-ending for her, we’ve just got to take it easy.”

Josie Sellner’s 34.975 on Friday was a career-high score for her as she took first on bars (8.15) and ended the night with a first-place floor routine score of 9.15.

She also took third on the beam with a career-best 9.1, while teammate Matilda Klawitter also had a career night on the beam with a 9.125.

Schultz’s top score on the beam highlighted a strong beam night overall as teammates Adrianna Knafla finished fourth on beam (8.95) and Montgomery took sixth (8.775). Berger took fifth on beam (8.9).

The Magic started the night on bars and while Knafla and Montgomery finished second (7.875) and third (7.675), respectively, in the event, it was the lowest-scoring event for both teams.

“Beam was definitely our high point, that’s the highest beam score we’ve had as a team and four of the five girls stayed on the beam the whole time, so that was really fun to see,” Post said. “But it was cool to see we started low and just gradually grew and grew and the girls didn’t get down on themselves for being behind those first two events, which was great.”

New Ulm’s Alaina Blomberg took fourth on bars (7.325), while Martin County’s Ava Thate took fifth (7.275).

Montgomery took third in the floor routine (8.8), while Blomberg took fourth (8.775) and Klawitter took fifth (8.5).

In the vault, New Ulm’s Isabelle Longtin turned in a career-high score of 8.9. Third in the vault was Thedens (8.875), while Montgomery took fourth (8.775) and Berger took fifth (8.65).

New Ulm hosts St. Peter on Tuesday, while the Magic are at Windom on Friday.