By TOM PURFIELD

Who says the middle-aged and the young can't have equal amounts of fun playing alongside one another?

The Pueblo Swim Club Long Course Open, being held this weekend at the Mineral Palace Park pool, offers something for every age of swimmer. For the first time, a masters meet is being incorporated into the longstanding USA Swimming event.

The Long Course Open started Friday with distance events for all age groups. The meet continues today and Sunday with 12-under events being held in the morning and 13-older swimmers going at it in the afternoon.

The starting blocks will look a lot different this year due to the addition of 16 masters swimmers. The Open has been fair game to any age of swimmer, but they had to have a USA Swimming card to be allowed to enter.

This season the Open has also been sanctioned as a masters event, meaning a 45-year old may be on the blocks next to a 13-year old.

"I asked Denny Krall, president of (Pueblo Swim Club), if they'd be willing to do that and he said yes," masters swimmer Dennis Gimlin said. "I sent in the paperwork to have it sanctioned as a masters meet and that's about it. They're just being nice to let us parasite off them, really."

If there is an open, or no age limit, draw in a USA Swimming meet, anyone can enter if they have their card. Gimlin has entered the Open for years, sometimes as an elder statesman of a club team or all by himself.

"I've had a lot of fun doing it and I thought if PSC didn't mind, we'd kind of remove the obstacle for other masters swimmers. That way they can enter without getting a USA Swimming card," Gimlin said. "Most of the older swimmers are already members of Colorado Masters and we simply sanctioned this as a masters event.

"It's a lot of fun to swim with the kids, even though most of them beat me by a lot."

Gimlin isn't the only older swimmer to regularly compete with the kids. Suzanne Divelbiss is registered as a coach and swimmer of PSC and, as an accomplished athlete in the water, gives PSC depth in the relays.

"It's fun. Suzanne's 40 and none of our girls want to race her, I'll tell you that," said Kathy Howard who, along with her husband Tim, coaches PSC.

Howard said local club swimmers welcome all of the competition they can get in a long course pool. USA Swimming state, zones and sectionals meets are all held in long-course meters, making meets in a 50-meter pool vital, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to form a quality field in such a pool south of Denver.

"You have so many teams in Denver and, within a very short reach, they have three 50-meter pools," Howard said. "We try to get Colorado Springs teams to come to our 50-meter pool, that's the whole draw. You've got to get into a pool this size and compete, you've just got to."

It is also challenging to book the Olympic Training Center and Air Force Academy pools, the only long-course tanks in Colorado Springs.

There are two Colorado Springs teams at the Long Course Open in Air Force and the Colorado Springs Swim Team. They join PSC, Pueblo County Swim Club, the Englewood Aces and Pueblo West to form this year's field.

"The coaches at Air Force are really good guys and really support us, and Colorado Springs Swim Team, we support each other all the time," Howard said. "We go to their meets and they come to ours. We know they need our bodies and we need theirs to keep the competition level up at the right place."