As the Penn State women's track and field team prepares to travel to New York City for its first away meet of the season, one familiar face is missing.

Sophomore sprinter Gayle Hunter will not be competing this weekend in the Sixth Annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational held at the Armory Track and Field Center, starting at 11 a.m. today. Competition will run until 5:35 p.m. before picking up again at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow.

Hunter tweaked her knee in the triple jump at last week's Penn State National Open, and Penn State women's track and field coach Beth Alford-Sullivan does not want to take any risks.

"She's been in a knee immobilizer this week, just to be precautionary," Alford-Sullivan said. "We're gonna rest her through the weekend and she should be good to go next week. She's having a great season, we don't wanna mess around."

Hunter will miss out on helping the Nittany Lions against some difficult competition. No. 1 South Carolina will be one of the 95 colleges and universities in New York providing a major challenge for the Lions, who are currently ranked No. 14 in the Trackwire 25.

Other ranked teams that will be participating in the event will be North Carolina (No. 8), Texas A&M (No. 12), LSU (No. 16), Alabama (No. 18), Duke (No. 21) and Harvard (No. 22).

As the New Balance Invitational is its first meet of the season in which team scores are calculated, Penn State is excited to get a chance to see where it stands with the nation's best as a whole.

"We know that we're really good as a team, but we don't see it on paper yet," junior high jumper Amber Strouse said earlier this season.

"So many teams bring one or two people, so it's not necessarily representative, but we're bringing in a full squad," Alford-Sullivan said.

Alford-Sullivan remains confident in her team's ability to produce without Hunter, as it has been quite commonplace this season for other members of the Lions to step it up when they are called upon.

Junior Kamilah Salaam in particular had an exhausting meet last weekend, running her usual plethora of events, and also filling in for Hunter in the 4X400-meter relay. Top scores from sophomore sprinter Shana Cox and thrower Jennifer Leatherman are always expected, and junior Cheryl Green took first in the 500-meter dash at this event last year.

A matchup to watch will be Cox against LSU sophomore sprinter Deonna Lawrence. Cox has posted the best 400-meter dash time in Division I this season, while Lawrence owns the third-best time.

Leatherman anticipates a glowing result for the team, but is most critical of her own event.

"Our sprinters are legit, but our throwers need to pick it up a little bit," she said.

A feel-good story for the weekend is that Tulane University, ravaged months ago by Hurricane Katrina, will be competing. President of the Armory Foundation Dr. Norbert Sander and Meet Director Jack -Pfeifer spearheaded an effort to get the Green Wave to New York.

"Tulane has been an enthusiastic supporter of our meet. So when they ran into trouble, it was an easy decision. We help our friends," Pfeifer said in a press release.