Imagine you are standing next to Miami Heat 7-foot-1 center Shaquille O'Neal. Now picture yourself running up and trying to jump over him.

Most people would be lucky to reach his waist, but freshman high jumper Ryan Fritz is not like most people.

On Saturday, Fritz cleared 7-1.25 to win the high jump at the Penn State, Connecticut and Princeton tri-meet.

Fritz's jump was a personal best by an inch, just raising the bar even higher for this former high school national champion from Octorara.

The jump was good enough to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Championships, with the automatic qualifier being 7-3.75, which Fritz feels he has a chance to make this year.

His goal is to jump at least 7-3 this year, if not 7-4.

He also has his sights set high for the Big Ten Championships.

"Hopefully I go to Big Tens, and I think I have a good shot at winning it, especially with having better competition there which should raise my level," he said.

His jumping coach Andrew Hardyk agrees.

"He'll contend, he'll either be No. 1 or No. 2 in the Big Ten after this jump [7-1.25]," he said.

But Hardyk also warns that the high jump is not an event that you can bank on, as there are so many things that need to fall perfectly into place for a jump to clear the bar.

That said, the way Fritz is performing now under the pressure and rigors of collegiate training excites Hardyk.

"A couple of years from now, he won't be as tired toward the end of the meet, we train differently than they do in high school," he said. "And the fact that he is performing so well right now is exciting because we've pretty much been beating the crap out of him, compared to his training in high school. He's overtrained and when his body adjusts to it and he's completely acclimatized to it, who knows?"

Penn State men's track and field head coach Harry Groves feels that Fritz might have the kind of ability and talent that it takes to excel for the Nittany Lions.

"He has his sights set high, and he loves what he does," Groves said. "If he keeps his head on straight, he has great potential."

Fritz seems to have a very bright future here at Penn State, and his future could also take him to the 2006 World Junior Championships this summer in China.

Look out Yao Ming, you might be next.