Records are meant to be broken.

But one pool and meet record a the Cheyenne Mountain Invite looked like it may never be topped.

That was until Aric Althouse stepped on the diving board.

Fourteen years ago Cody Stambaugh set the Cheyenne Mountain Invite pool and meet record in one-meter diving with a score of 527.75., and the record has lain dormant ever since.

But according to Lewis-Palmer coach Alan Arata, Althouse is not a diver you come across every day.

Saturday, Althouse crushed the invite diving record, and beat his own school record for the fifth time this year, with a final score of 557.65 - beating the 2004 record by nearly 30 points.

“There’s been a lot of divers come through this pool over the years, and a lot of really, really good ones,” Arata said. “Aric didn’t start all that great, but we have a good lineup for him, and he’s been really, really strong at the end of meets.”

Althouse locked in the win with a final dive which scored a 61.2 - the top individual dive score of the meet.

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He was chased by Discovery Canyon’s Brendan Byrnes who also broke the 2004 meet and pool record with a final score of 538.65.

In the most recent Colorado boys’ swimming rankings, Althouse is the top-ranked diver in Class 5A, and with his performance Saturday, he’s likely to stay there - but Arata said when Althouse started, he was a work in progress, to say the least.

“He was just absolutely awful as a diver the first time we saw him,” Arata joked, making a sour face at the thought of Althouse’s first dive. “But he showed his freshman year that he is coachable and that he was willing to put in the extra work. And now wherever we compete in the state, the judges have looked at him and said, that guy is something different than anyone else.”

Althouse is just the latest diving success to come out of Lewis-Palmer, as the girls’ swim program also boasts a talented diving roster.

In February, three Lewis-Palmer divers placed at the state meet.

“When I started the guys swim program 14 seasons ago, the thing I wanted was a good diving program. We work really, really, really hard on diving, and I think its a place that a lot of people don’t,” Arata said. “A lot of the times with swimmers, you get what you get, but divers you make, and we feel pretty good about making them.”

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