Penn State women's track coach Beth Alford-Sullivan announced late Tuesday that another high school track superstar will be donning blue and white come fall. Gayle Hunter of John W. North High School in Riverside, Calif., has signed a national letter of intent to come to Penn State.

Hunter is a Track and Field News All-American and is considered the top multi-event athlete coming out of high school this year.

As a high school senior in 2004, Hunter has been turning heads with some of her marks and times. At her only indoor meet of the season, the Nike Indoor in Landover, Md., Hunter won the long jump and the pentathlon.

Her long jump right now is off the charts. Hunter owns the top prep mark in the country with a jump of 20 feet, 7 1/2 inches, a jump that would almost certainly land her at the top of collegiate competition.

At the Arcadia Invitational, considered the elite meet of prep competition, she nabbed third place in the 100-meters and triple jump competitions.

Hunter is arguably the most talented athlete ever to sign with a Big Ten women's program, according to Penn State women's track assistant coach Jeff McAuley in a press release.

"Athletically she's going to be someone who will really make a dent in her first year," Alford-Sullivan said. "She has the potential to become one of the greatest female athletes the Big Ten has ever seen."

Hunter is the third track and field athlete to sign with Penn State from California high school track powerhouse J.W. North in the last two years. Freshman Lena Bettis and current redshirt Ashlee Brown are also products of the same program.

J.W. North girl's track coach Charles Leathers said Bettis and Brown were part of the reason Hunter decided on Penn State.

"There's an East-coast, West-coast connection happening right now at Penn State," Leathers said. "Jeff McAuley is a California guy, and he's bringing a lot of our talent east."

Leathers said Hunter has been pretty reserved about her commitment to Penn State.

"Her visit to Penn State was a big factor in her signing there, but she's been pretty unemotional about the whole thing," he said. "I know she should be excited, and I am excited for the great opportunity this is for her."

Last weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., Alford Sullivan said she got a chance to see Hunter in action, and it was pretty obvious that she would be coming to Penn State.

"She was warming up in a 'We Are Penn State' T-shirt, so I took that as a pretty strong indication she liked what we had to say," Alford-Sullivan said.

Hunter will continue training in California this summer to keep in shape for collegiate indoor competition next winter.

The next four years of track and field at Penn State will certainly be making headlines with an all-star like Hunter in Happy Valley.