The Austin gymnastics team closed out its regular season home schedule in style as it put up a season’s best score and beat Owatonna 142.2-140.35 in the Austin YMCA Tuesday.

Austin sophomore Maddie Mullenbach was first in all-around with a score of 36.875 and freshman Jennifer Boyle was second in all-around with a career-best score of 36.250.

“I’m always pumped up for home meets. I feel like they make me more confident,” Mullenbach said. “Not even half of our beam girls [tonight] are normally on varsity. They did a great job of stepping up and making it the best they can.”

It was a bittersweet senior night for the Packers two seniors — Carolyn Hackel and Abby Bickler. Hackel recently returned from a broken foot that kept her out of the lineup for nearly two months and Bickler recently had her season end with a torn ACL.

“It’s been a tough season. At the beginning of the year we lost Carolyn and then Abby went down,” Austin head coach Alex Bade said. “We were struggling for awhile, but the girls have been fighting and they’ve been working their butts off in practice. It’s paying off.”

Hackel, who broke her foot by falling off the beam eight weeks ago, was on the beam for just the fourth time since that injury on Tuesday. She said the beam still gets her nervous, but she’s glad to be back competing.

Hackel was also glad to see the team put up a season’s best score.

“It stinks that it took Abby getting hurt for girls to realize that we’re better than what we were,” Hackel said. “Abby’s doing everything she can to be a captain and a leader. She’s really brought some girls up and it really showed tonight.”

The Packers and Huskies have been two of the top teams in the Big Nine for the past few years, but Austin wasn’t too busy looking at the other team’s routines on Tuesday. The Packers were more focused on themselves.

“It’s not who we beat that really matters, it’s the personal wins that really matter,” Hackel said. “The fact that some girls got personal bests, the fact that we got our season high and the fact that a lot of girls got to step up and have their chance at competing on varsity was what really matters.”

Bade likes how far his team has come this year, especially with two major injuries on the squad, but he thinks they’re best may still be ahead of them.

“It still wasn’t our best performance, but we’re getting a lot better and the girls are getting more confidence. It was coming and I’ve known it’s been coming, I’ve just been waiting for it,” Bade said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re getting there.”

AUSTIN RESULTS

Vault: Maddie Mullenbach (first, 9.450); Carolyn Hackel (sixth, 9.000); Jennifer Boyle (eighth, 8.900); Rachel Quandt (10th, 8.750)

Bars: Boyle (first, 9.050); Hackel (third, 8.700); Quandt (fourth, 8.500); Mullenbach (fifth, 8.400); Jordan DeLaMater (10th, 8.000)

Beam: Mullenbach (first, 9.475); Boyle (third, 8.950); Paige Raymond (fourth, 8.075); Hackel (seventh, 7.750)

Floor: Mullenbach (first, 9.550); Hackel (third, 9.500); Boyle (fourth, 9.350); Quandt (eighth, 8.800)

All-Around: Mullenbach (first, 36.875); Boyle (second, 36.250); Hackel (fourth, 34.950)