As the Penn State women's track and field team moves its Big Ten Championship quest to the outdoor arena, it will be without one key ingredient.

Sophomore sprinter, jumper and hurdler Gayle Hunter will be redshirting the 2006 outdoor season. Hunter broke her left patella jumping at the Penn State National on Jan. 28, and she redshirted the remainder of the indoor season. Her doctors had hoped that she would be healthy in six to eight weeks and compete within the first week or two of the outdoor season. However, now six weeks later and with the opening meet of the outdoor season tomorrow, she still is unable to jog.

Despite the disappointing loss, head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan is optimistic that sitting out the year is a good decision for Hunter.

"There's just something that comes along that needs some extra attention and some extra time, and it gives you that fifth year of age and experience and training strength to really put it together your senior year," Alford-Sullivan said.

Hunter broke a 21-year old record in the 55-meter hurdles at the Penn State National Open the week before her injury. Last year she won a silver medal in the long jump at the Pan Am Junior Track and Field Championships.

The impact of Hunter's absence was first seen at the Big Ten Indoor Championship meet. Finishing fourth, the team would have been helped by Hunter's reliable contributions in the sprints and jumps. For the outdoor season, the team is already prepared to fill in the gaps she will leave. Junior Lena Bettis in the jumps and freshman Aleesha Barber in the hurdles are expected to lead the way.

Since the injury, Hunter has not practiced with the team. Her absence is felt not only physically by the team, but also emotionally.

"We're definitely disappointed to a point," sophomore sprinter Shana Cox said. "Gayle is very instrumental to the team performance-wise, but also she's a really great person to be around. She's funny, she's motivated, and she's competitive. She gets a lot of things fired up in you."

For Hunter, knee problems are nothing new. Last year, she was plagued by tendonitis and swelling in her knees which occasionally caused her to miss time practicing and competing in the jumps.

Her knee injuries first surfaced when she was playing basketball in high school and broke her left ankle. Rather than taking time to rehab her leg, she began running for her club track team soon afterwards, and it never had a chance to fully strengthen again. Hunter believes this weakness was the cause of her recent knee injury.

As a multi-event athlete, especially in the jumps, her knees take an extra pounding as compared to single-event athletes. Hunter, however, does not think this year's intense workout schedule had any negative effect on her health.

"My coaches were pretty understanding," Hunter said. "When I talked to [sprints] Coach [Chris] Johnson and Coach Sullivan, and said my knee's really bugging me, we'd lay low lay off the hard workouts."

Despite her disappointment, sitting out the season will be a welcome break for Hunter. She has been running track almost year-round since the age of nine. This break will give her some recovery time, which she thinks will be beneficial to her career.

"Pretty much every athlete that's been successful has had an off year or had a year where it just didn't go well," Hunter said. "Next year, I'll just come back full force."