No. 1 Oklahoma Opens 2024 at Mean Girls Super 16 Gymnastics Championship

NORMAN – The 2024 season officially begins Friday at the Mean Girls Super 16 Gymnastics Championship in Las Vegas, Nev., as the defending back-to-back national champion and No. 1 Oklahoma women's gymnastics team takes to the floor.

The two-day, four-session competition will be held at Orleans Arena from Jan. 5-6. The top-ranked Sooners will compete in the second session on Friday, Jan. 5, at 9 p.m. CT against No. 6 Michigan, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 11 Michigan State. The meet will be streamed on the Mean Girls Super 16 YouTube page which can be found here.

This is the second consecutive season in which the Sooners will open their competition slate at the Super 16. In 2023, the Sooners topped three top-10 teams in No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 Auburn and No. 10 UCLA.

GET THIS PARTY STARTED

The 2024 Oklahoma squad returns 21 routines and welcomes four incredible newcomers for the season. Under head coach K.J. Kindler, OU is 16-3 all-time in season openers. The Sooners have not lost a season opener since 2016.

THE ROAD TO NATIONALS

This year's Oklahoma squad will face some of the toughest competition in the nation with a schedule that can rival anyone in the country. The competitive slate has 16 of OUs regular season opponents ranked in the preseason coaches poll, including 13 in the top 25.

Oklahoma will face eight of the nine other teams ranked in the top 10 during the 2024 regular season with No. 2 Florida being the lone exception. The Sooners will host three top 10 teams at Lloyd Noble Center in No. 10 Denver (Jan. 26), No. 6 Michigan (March 1) and No. 8 Alabama (March 17). Also coming to Norman will be No. 31 BYU (Feb. 9) and No. 34 West Virginia (Feb. 23).

OU will open the season on Jan. 5 against No. 6 Michigan, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 11 Michigan State. The following weekend, OU will face No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Utah and No. 5 UCLA in the most anticipated meet of the season. In the final road meet in the month of January, the Sooners will see UCLA, No. 10 Denver and No. 20 Stanford on Jan. 21.

The Sooners will also face No. 19 Arizona State (Feb. 2), No. 15 Arkansas (Feb. 17 & March 10), No. 7 California (Feb. 17), No. 21 Washington (Feb. 17) and No. 35 Clemson (March 3).

ROAD WARRIORS

The 2024 Sooners will be tested early and often away from the friendly confines of Lloyd Noble Center. OU will start the season with three-straight road quad meets, facing seven of the top 11 ranked teams and three in the top five. After their trip to Vegas, the Sooners will head to Utah for the inaugural Sprouts Farmer's Market Collegiate Quad featuring the top-ranked Sooners alongside No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Utah and No. 5 UCLA.

Oklahoma will conclude the month of January with a quad meet at No. 10 Denver on Sunday, Jan. 21. The meet will feature the Pioneers along with No. 5 UCLA and No. 20 Stanford.

OU will look to defend its title at the Metroplex Challenge on Feb. 17 against Arkansas, Washington and California. Held at the Fort Worth Convention Center. OU will then travel to TWU on March 3 for a tri-meet featuring the Clemson Tigers in their first season of NCAA competition. The regular season wraps up with OU heading to Arkansas for the first time since 2019 on March 10.

WE TOO DEEP

The Sooners return 13 gymnasts from the 2023 squad that secured the programs sixth national title in fifth-year senior Ragan Smith; seniors Audrey Davis, Bell Johnson, Katherine LeVasseur, Sheridan Ramsey and Meilin Sullivan; juniors Jordan Bowers, Danae Fletcher, Caitin Kirkpatrick, Danielle Sievers and Madison Snook; and sophomores Ava Siegfeldt and Faith Torrez.

THERE'S ONLY ONE

The back-to-back defending national champion Oklahoma women's gymnastics team was tabbed as the No. 1 team in the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) preseason coaches poll. The Sooners received 36 first place votes for 1,709 points, while Florida came in second with 1,634 points and three first place votes and LSU was third with 1,628 points and five first place votes. The Gators are coming off a second-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Championship, while LSU is coming off a fourth-place finish. Utah, who finished third at last year's NCAA Championship, came in fourth in the poll with two first place votes and 1,516 points, while UCLA rounded out the top five with 1,499 points and one first place vote.

This is the sixth time in program history that the Sooners were slated as the No. 1 team and the 14th straight season in which OU has been ranked in the top five nationally to begin the year. This is also the 11th consecutive season the Sooners have been ranked in the top three. Prior to this season, OU was slated as the No. 1 team in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2023, No. 2 in 2015, 2019 and 2021, No. 3 in 2014 and 2022, and No. 4 in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

OU has now opened 18 consecutive seasons ranked in the top 10 nationally and the last 22 years in the top 25. Since Coach Kindler's arrival in 2007, the Sooners have been ranked in the preseason top 10 every year.

S-E-C YOU SOON

The 2024 season will be bittersweet as it marks the final year in the Big 12 for the Sooners who will move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) beginning with the 2025 season. Kindler has been a member of both the Big 8 and Big 12 conferences, beginning her career as a gymnast and coach at Iowa State before coming to Oklahoma in 2007.

The Sooners will take on a new challenge in the SEC in 2025, which currently boasts all eight teams ranked in the top 20 of the preseason poll, with four in the top 10. Oklahoma will face four SEC teams during the regular season in No. 3 LSU, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 15 Arkansas.

Before departing the Big 12 Conference, the Sooners will host the 2024 Championships inside Lloyd Noble Center. OU has not hosted in Norman since winning the 2019 Big 12 crown.

SEASON TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Season tickets to watch the back-to-back and six-time national champion Oklahoma women's gymnastics team's 2024 home campaign are now available. To reserve your seat, click here or contact the OU Athletics Ticket Office by phone at (405) 325-2424. Reserved seats are $60 each. General admission season tickets are $35 for adults, while seniors (55+) and youth (6-18) are $25.

FOLLOW THE OKLAHOMA SOONERS

For updates, follow @OU_WGymnastics on Twitter and Instagram, or like Oklahoma Women's Gymnastics on Facebook.