PREPS / ROB FERNAS : After a Setback, Her Senior Season Goes Swimmingly

A few years ago, setting a national record in the backstroke would have seemed impossible for Jessica Tong. She stopped swimming the event because of the intense pain it caused.

“The doctors told me I couldn’t do it anymore because my shoulders were screwed up,” she said. “I think a lot of it was that my muscles were still growing.”

Apparently Tong’s muscles have caught up with her ability.

The Chadwick senior, who resumed swimming the backstroke only a few months ago, set a girls’ national high school record in the 100-yard backstroke at the Southern Section 2-A Division final Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Tong’s time of 55.33 seconds broke the previous record of 55.63 set by Barbara Bedford of Peddi High in Hightstown, N.J., in 1990.

“It just shows what kind of talent she has,” said Bryan Weaver, Tong’s coach at Chadwick. “She’s quite an athlete.”

Tong also won the 100 freestyle (50.29) at the 2-A final for the third consecutive year, giving her seven individual 2-A titles in her four-year varsity career.

In addition, she swam the first leg on Chadwick’s victorious 200 freestyle relay team (1:41.71), providing a comfortable lead for teammates Julie Randau, Danielle Steinhauser and Heather Putnam, a freshman. The Dolphins finished sixth in team scoring.

Tong said she regularly swam the backstroke as a youngster until chronic pain forced her to give it up.

No problem. Instead of competing in the backstroke, Tong concentrated on the freestyle events and won five 2-A Division titles in her first three years at Chadwick.

But for her senior year, Tong wanted more than another trophy in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. She wanted a national record.

To get it, Tong began training again in the backstroke “about four or five months ago,” figuring it would be easier to break the national record in the 100 backstroke than in one of the short freestyle events.

A logical plan, but what about the pain?

“I still get sore, but not sore enough to stop,” she said.

Her record-setting time Saturday would have placed her seventh at this year’s NCAA final, Weaver said. Tong has a scholarship to the University of Texas and hopes to make the 1996 Olympic team.

“She’s such a gifted swimmer, I think she can do anything in the NCAAs,” Weaver said. “The beauty of an athlete like Jessica is that she can do all the strokes. Her future might be in the 200 or 400 (individual medley).”

Tong’s joyous weekend turned to disappointment Monday when she learned that Mark Schubert was leaving Texas to become the men’s swimming coach at USC. Schubert, the 1992 U.S. Olympic swimming coach, had personally recruited Tong for the powerful Texas women’s team.

“He convinced my parents that the University of Texas was the place to go rather than Stanford, Harvard or Berkeley,” she said.

Despite Schubert’s departure, Tong said she will honor her commitment to Texas, which won NCAA women’s titles in 1990 and ’91 under Schubert.

“I’m obligated to go there,” she said. “I’m sure they will get a wonderful coach. I’m going there because of the school, not because of the coach.”

Tong, who plans to major in chemistry, has a 3.4 grade-point average at Chadwick.

The Santa Monica and Peninsula boys’ swimming teams waged a competitive battle for the Southern Section 3-A Division title Saturday night, with Santa Monica coming out on top, 193 points to 181.

Led by seniors Greg Wagner and Roy Elliott, Peninsula won four events. Wagner won the 100 backstroke (54.25) and was fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:46.30), and Elliott won the 100 freestyle (46.11) and was second in the 50 (21.66). Peninsula set a 3-A record in the 200 freestyle relay (1:27.36) and also won the 400 relay (3:12.25).

Another South Bay winner at the 3-A final was Redondo sophomore Grant Currie, who outclassed the competition in one-meter diving. Currie totaled 415.30 points, 80 points better than his nearest competitor.

A meeting of the Southern Section Executive Committee to review rules violation charges against the Inglewood football team, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed to June 2 at the section office in Cerritos.

A section spokesman said the delay was requested by Inglewood, which has been accused of playing a fifth-year high school student and an academically ineligible player last season.

Notes

Three South Bay boys’ volleyball teams will play quarterfinal matches in the Southern Section playoffs at 7:30 Friday night. Second-seeded Mira Costa (13-4) will play host to San Marcos of Santa Barbara and fourth-seeded Peninsula will travel to Santa Barbara in 4-A Division matches. Fourth-seeded South Torrance (13-3) plays at Crespi of Encino in the 3-A Division. . . . Torrance (20-6), the South Bay’s only 20-game winner in softball, is one of nine area teams competing in the Southern Section playoffs. The Tartars will play host to Mayfair in a 3-A Division first-round game at 3 p.m. Friday. Other playoff participants include Hawthorne and Peninsula in 4-A, Mira Costa, North Torrance and South Torrance in 3-A, El Segundo in 2-A, Mary Star in 1-A and Gateway Christian in the Small Schools Division. . . . John Britton, a former professional soccer player and ex-coach of the Los Angeles Heat, was named soccer coach at Gardena High.