NORMAN — Coming off back-to-back national championships, the OU women’s gymnastics team opens the 2024 season at 9 p.m. Friday at the Mean Girls Super 16 Gymnastics Championship at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

“You learn a lot when you go out there and compete for the first time,” Sooners coach K.J. Kindler said. “I think we’re probably going to learn a lot on Friday kind of where we’re at, get a good benchmark. I know we have a ton of talent.”

While the Sooners look to replace several key pieces from last year’s team, OU is once again the favorites heading into the season.

The Sooners are ranked No. 1, receiving 36 of 48 first-place votes in the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association’s preseason poll.

Florida, which has finished runner-up to the Sooners each of the last two seasons, is No. 2, followed by LSU, Utah and UCLA.

Here are four things to know about the Sooners heading into the 2024 season:

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Tough schedule

Sooners coach K.J. Kindler is known for scheduling tough.

OU regularly faces many of the top teams in the nation before the postseason and this season is no different.

Not only is Friday’s meet tough — the Sooners will take on No. 6 Michigan, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 11 Michigan State — but OU follows it up with a trip to West Valley City, Utah, next week to take on No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Utah and No. 5 UCLA. The following weekend, they’ll hit the road again to compete at Big 12 rival Denver, ranked 10th, in a meet that also includes UCLA and No. 20 Stanford.

“The most difficult beginning we’ve ever put together — no doubt about it,” Kindler said. “This is definitely going to be a challenge for us. I think it’ll be eye-opening. I think we will see what our team is made of really quickly and know what adjustments we have to make.”

The Sooners don’t compete at home until hosting Denver on Jan. 26.

The home schedule also includes Michigan on March 1 and No. 8 Alabama on March 17.

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Vault lineup gets youthful remodel

OU’s vault lineup took a hit with graduation, as NCAA national champion Olivia Trautman and first-team All-American Allie Stern wrapped up their careers last season.

But the Sooners have a tendency to reload in the event rather than rebuild and this season figures to be no different.

In Las Vegas, the Sooners will use two freshmen in the rotation, Hannah Scheible and Keira Wells.

“They’re amazing vaulters, dynamic vaulters, could win the NCAA championship on vault,” Kindler said of her two freshmen in the rotation. “But it’ll be about how they handle that hand going up and doing it under the pressure that we’ll have to see.”

Scheible, a Michigan product, is a seven-time level 10 national champion, winning two all-around titles and taking the national beam title for the last three years.

Wells, from Kansas, has won the Level 10 national vault title three times.

Wells is likely to be part of the Sooners’ balance beam rotation as well.

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Sooners add experience as well

It’s not just freshmen that will help fill the void left by the departing gymnasts from last year’s champions.

The Sooners added fifth-year senior Soraya Hawthorne from Georgia in the offseason.

Hawthorne is a three-event athlete, competing on vault, beam and floor, finishing last season sixth in the floor in the SEC with a national qualifying score or 9.945, good for 12th nationally.

Danielle Sievers will start slow

After a strong sophomore season where she competed in three events, Danielle Sievers will ease her way back in after missing nearly a month due to injury.

Sievers returned to action about a week ago.

“She definitely isn’t anywhere near full strength,” Kindler said, noting that Sievers would start off only competing in the uneven bars as she builds her strength back up.

Sievers posted highs of 9.950 in the vault, bars and floor exercise last season and figures to work her way back into the lineups on vault and floor as the season progresses.

“It’ll be huge to get her back when she is ready,” Kindler said. “And we anticipate her being ready by the end of January.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's gymnastics: Four things to know about Sooners in 2024