A trio of local gymnasts will be helping to represent Alabama during a national competition in Kentucky Jan. 9.

County residents Courtney Deavers, Lauren Seaver and Carson Williams will join five other Alabama girls as they travel to the National Judges Cup Level 7 State Team Challenge in Covington, Ky.

The team is composed of the top six scorers from the 2009 Optional Judges Cup, which was held Dec. 13 in Tuscaloosa. Deavers, an Alabaster resident and student at the Thompson Sixth Grade Center, was the top scorer at the Tuscaloosa event, which featured more than 80 competitors.

“We are really excited. She has worked very hard, and is certainly deserving of this,” said Jennifer Deavers, Courtney Deavers’ mother. “She has been into gymnastics since she was 5 years old, so it’s been about seven years now.

“She loves it. She practices all the time,” Jennifer Deavers added, noting her daughter has been training most of her life at the Head Over Heels gymnastics center off Caldwell Trace Park in North Shelby.

During the national event, the Alabama team will be competing against as many as 20 other state teams.