The tall and lanky Ryan Fritz stares down the height he has never jumped before. He swallows a deep breath, arms already in the sprinting motion with a slight lean back as he approaches the bar from the right.

He takes off in a gallop with a high-step leg kick, quickly picking up speed as his long, dirty blond hair flops up and down.

His sprint gets a lean to it as he bends his route towards the middle of the bar. When he hits his 10th step and takes off through the air, he gets his neck and shoulders over the bar first and arches the rest of his lower body over, flopping down on the soft, forgiving mat.

The perfect jump.

The sophomore high jumper for the Penn State men's tack and field team has already accomplished a lot in his short time in his collegiate career. His personal best jump is 7-feet, 1.5 inches in both indoor and outdoor competition. Fritz ranks fourth on Penn State's all-time leaders in the high jump in the outdoor season, and tied for third with David Coney (1985) in indoor competition.

His accomplishments may be satisfying so far, but Fritz dreams of making the leap that will put him on top of the Penn State record books in the high jump.

"This year I want to aim for 7-4.25, which is an automatic qualifier for NCAA's [Championships]. Hopefully in the future maybe 7-5 and 7-6," Fritz said. "Penn State's record is 7-4 and some change, so I hope to get that next year at the very least."

The Parkersburg native was already a proven athlete before coming to Penn State. At Octorara High School, Fritz was the PIAA champion in the high jump as a senior and claimed victory in the National High School Meet with a leap of seven feet.

Being the nation's top high jumper out of high school, Fritz had an opportunity to attend basically any college that he wanted. However Fritz's decision to enroll at Penn State was fairly easy.

"I got along with all the athletes really well when I came up. Coach Drew [Hardyk] impressed me with what he knew about the high jump," Fritz said. "They offered me an early scholarship and I took advantage of that, and I don't regret a thing."

Last year, Fritz finished an impressive second place in the Big Ten Indoor Championships and eighth in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. He even placed second with a mark of 7-1.5 in the highly competitive USA Track and Field Junior Meet.

After achieving such lofty heights last season, Fritz had a slight disappointment before last weekend. Despite winning the Penn State Relays and taking second place finishes in the Penn State Open and the Penn State National, he had yet to reach the seven-foot plateau.

"What's impressed me the most this season is that he had a little bit of trouble in a few of the previous meets. He couldn't quite catch his approach, couldn't quite get the rhythm of the jump going," Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "He didn't allow himself to get frustrated by that, he just kept plugging away, kept training and getting after it."

Last week at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, it finally came together for him at the right time. Facing his toughest competition of the year, Fritz put up his best height this season.

Fritz finished as a runner-up, clearing the bar at 7-1. In the process, he hit the provisional standard for the NCAA Indoor Championships, and the leap currently ranks him with the top-10 performances in the high jump on the college level.

"It was an accomplishment. I wasn't really struggling at the beginning of the year, I just wasn't jumping as high as I wanted to do," Fritz said. "It's finally rewarding just to know that I got that 7-1, my provisional qualifier."

Despite being such a great leaper, Fritz has been working with Hardyk to continue to refine his jumping skills.

He loved the skill and technique that Fritz brought from high school, but Hardyk believes that continued repetition to enhance those skills is the best way to bring out those huge jumps.

"The most important thing is the approach, so if you nail down you're approach then you're gonna have a pretty good chance of jumping well," Hardyk said. "If you're approach isn't very consistent then you're going to have inconsistent results. Really, once you get the approach and takeoff the rest kind of falls into place pretty easily"

While Fritz continues to work on consistency in order to take the next step, he got the opportunity to see firsthand what some of the best high jumpers across the world could do last August in the World Junior Championships in Beijing, China.

The championship was Fritz's first international competition and certainly a new experience.

"It was a good experience, very rewarding. I didn't do so well, but I still had a blast," Fritz said. "I met a lot of my teammates that I will see at future NCAA meets. It's some of the best kids that are my age in the world, and some future Olympians."

As for Fritz's potential international career, it is still very much in the air. He still feels like he has a lot left to accomplish at Penn State, in the Big Ten and in the NCAA championships before thinking about his future.

"Every athlete has aspirations [to compete in the Olympics.] I'm just gonna have to work really hard to get up that point. There is a lot of talent in the next couple years in high jump, so it's gonna be pretty tough," Fritz said.