The OU women’s gymnastics team is ranked third in the country and just moved to 6-0 this year; however, the squad is about to face its toughest stretch of competition all season.

It all gets started at 7:00 p.m. Friday when the Sooners travel to Washington.

The Sooners jumped from No. 7 to No. 3 after beating N.C. State on the road Jan. 14. Since then, the team has been on a roll. A short week after beating N.C. State in Raleigh, N.C., the Sooners returned home to take down Oregon State, Denver — two top-20 teams — and Centenary to move to 5-0.

Just two days after that, the women were back in action at Texas Woman’s University. The Sooners came out on top once again in Texas, tying their highest score of the year with a 196.175. That win not only put the Sooners at 6-0 for the year, but it also gave OU coach K.J. Kindler her 100th win.

Kindler’s 100th victory is not the only thing the program has recently accomplished, though.

Oklahoma gymnasts have received the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week award the last two consecutive weeks. Freshman Taylor Spears won the honor after scoring a 9.875 in her first-ever collegiate beam routine against N.C. State, and freshman Madison Mooring took home the same honor this week after becoming the only NCAA gymnast this year to score a 9.95 on the beam. With the young talent that Oklahoma has, the program looks to be in good shape to hang around the top of the rankings.

“We have a really exciting group of freshmen,” Kindler said. “They are a lot of fun to watch, and they’ve all been doing very well. We’re really impressed with their poise on the floor.”

The next test for the surging program is the road meet in Seattle, Wash., to face No. 17 Washington. The Huskies placed fifth in the Pac-10 Showcase to open up this season, and since then, the team has gone 4-0.

Oklahoma has a much higher team average than Washington this season. However, the Sooners will have to compete at a high level to stay undefeated.

The Huskies have already posted a 195.475 this season, a score high enough to beat the Sooners in their two home meets of the year. The Sooners, though, should have the advantage, particularly if they can come anywhere close to the season-high 196.175 they posted in the last meet.

Even if OU comes away from Washington with a victory to stay undefeated, the road does not get any easier. The Sooners follow Friday’s meet with two conference road contests against two top-20 teams, Nebraska and Iowa State.