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3 Utah athletes are packing their bags for Russia

Posted at 3:05 PM, Nov 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-05 17:05:55-05

Ashley McDonald, Shelby Nobuhara and Zeke Dayton are getting ready for the World Age Group Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Only four athletes in their respective age divisions are selected to represent Team USA at this competition.  They qualified for it based on their performances throughout the year at various qualifying competitions.

This will be Shelby's first World Age Groups, and Ashley and Zeke's second.

Ashley first went last year in Bulgaria at age 15.  She finished in 4th Place, missing a bronze medal by 1/10th of a point and silver by 2/10th of a point. She's worked really hard in 2018 to make sure she made it back to Worlds.

Zeke is a sophomore at Highland High in Salt Lake City and already a three-time national tumbling champion.  He also earned the number two spot at nationals this year as a Junior elite.  He has been a member of the USA Gymnastics Junior National  Team for three years.

Shelby is 13 years old from Mapleton, Utah.  She started power tumbling at age 7.  She took first in both double mini and tumbling at nationals.  She is the youngest female athlete on the junior national team for both tumbling and double mini.