Nina Gee makes her way down the length of the Mingus Park Pool Thursday during a workout. The 75-year-old swimmer will be competing for her first time in the Masters National Championships in Gresham Aug. 14. World Photo by Alex Powers.

“We discovered the fountain of youth,” said 66-year-old Ralph Mohr, standing next to Mingus Park Pool. “It has chlorine in it.”

For the five adult Coos Bay swimmers planning to compete at the Masters Nationals Long Course Championships at Mount Hood Community College starting Aug. 14, a fun chance to compete, a path to friendship and a method for living a long, healthy life.

United States Masters Swimming is a national organization that offers competitions, clinics and workshops for people over the age of 18. Mohr, for example, is an avid competitor in the 65-69 age group, having just completed three long-distance open water races at the Cascade Lakes Swim Festival at Elk Lake near Bend.

“This is swimming for life,” said Masters competitor Jayna Tomac, who’s the youngster of the crew at age 36. “The four people I’m here with today are my role models. I hope to be competing when I’m 66 — or 90.”

Tomac, a former Washington State swimmer, might just be the ace of the group: She’s competing in the 50, 100- and 200-meter breaststroke, the 200 individual medley and the 50 freestyle. Tomac’s seeded No. 1 in the 50 and 100 breastroke, third in the 200 breaststroke 50 freestyle and fourth in the 200 medley.

“I started swimming again recently,” she said. “Swimming just makes me feel good.”

In contrast, the elder of the group, 75-year-old Nina Gee, is a lifelong swimmer but the newest Masters competitor of the five.

Gee, a great-grandmother, said she swims to keep healthy and to serve as a role model for her family.

“My children and grandchildren are watching, I’ve got to set an example for them. I’ve stuck my foot in, and now I’ve got to stay in. I can’t quit,” she said, adding that health problems are far away as long as she stays fit by swimming. “As long as I do what I’m doing, I seem to be OK.”

Gee will compete in the 200 freestyle next week at Nationals.

Karen Matson, 46, also a mother, will compete in the 1,500 freestyle. She said she’s been swimming for her whole life, and at this point, the activity amounts to her alone time.

“It’s quiet, nobody can talk to me,” she said of distance swimming. “It gives you that time to think and reflect.”

Denise Stuntzner-Gibson, 45, is in four events next week: The 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle. She’s seeded No. 2 in the 100 butterfly. She swam on a scholarship at Michigan, and has been swimming pretty much straight since she was 6 — she’s a North Bend High School graduate and a member of the North Bend Hall of Fame.

“I just decided to do (the Masters Nationals) because it’s important,” she said. “It’s something I can shoot for, and use to up my fitness.”

Masters swimming is highly competitive. The meets include ex-Olympians and former world-record holders, the swimmers said.

Mohr himself is no stranger to competition, though. He swam at University of Oregon in the 1960s and was Marshfield’s swimming coach until 1987. He’s racing in the 200, 400 and 1,500 freestyle (No. 2 seed), and the 100 butterfly, bringing his best to the Masters as he has since 1975.

“The competition’s a thrill, because of who you’re swimming against,” said Mohr. “This is one of the activities you can do that when you turn a “0” birthday, you’re happy — then you get to swim against people that are older than you.”

But isn’t it a thrill to beat swimmers that are younger than he is?

“It’s not really a thrill,” he said. “I do it regularly.”