SWIMMING / JUNIOR NATIONALS WEST : This Time, Mark Stewart Is Winner

Moments after winning the 100-meter breaststroke Monday in the U.S. Swimming Junior Nationals West at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, Mark Stewart recalled a runner-up finish in the spring of 1991.

“I was sick of getting second,” said Stewart, who anguished over the loss.

Leaving no room for error this time, Stewart took charge from the gun with a lengthy underwater pull. Over the last 35 meters he sped away from the field, touching in 1 minute 4.23 seconds, well under the Junior National record of 1:04.85 set in 1989 by Paul Nelsen.

Stewart, 18, a native of Wales with British and Canadian citizenship, cared little about the record, however.

“I got this,” he said with a smile, pointing to the gold medal around his neck, “That’s good enough for me.”

Franco Fleischmann and Catherine Fox were also among Monday’s record-setters.

Fleischmann, winner of the 200 butterfly on Saturday, tied the Junior National 100 butterfly record with a 55.26.

A German native who moved to Houston in 1990, Fleischmann, 17, also scored a victory as the third leg of The Woodlands’ winning 800 freestyle relay team.

Fox, 14, of the Kansas City, Kan. Blazers, used a remarkably fluid stroke to break the Junior National West 100 backstroke record of 1:05.12 with a 1:04.79.

“I was really nervous about this last night,” Fox said. “I didn’t know what my place was when I touched. I looked up at the scoreboard and I was pretty surprised.”

Fox, who helped the Blazers win the 800 freestyle relay two hours later, said she gained inspiration from teammate Janie Wagstaff, the American record-holder in the 100 backstroke and a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.

Three other swimmers won their second individual events: Emily Peters, 16, of Bloomington, Minn., survived a late charge by Alison Mijares to win the 400 freestyle (4:21.20); Jay Telford, 17, of Mount Hood, Ore., swam unchallenged in the boys’ 400 freestyle (3:59.17), and John Simmons, 17, of Irvine Novaquatics, edged Whitney Woolard by 0.02 for the 100 backstroke title in 58.64.

Sunday, Peters won the 200 freestyle, Telford was the 800 freestyle champion Friday and Simmons won the 200 backstroke Saturday with a completely different philosophy than he used Monday.

The challenge for Simmons in the longer race was to pace himself and avoid being lured into a fast, early pace by Woolard, 16, of the Vancouver (Ore.) Swim Club.

After seeing Woolard swim in the preliminaries-again with a race horse style-Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo decided that Simmons should go all out until he ran out of steam.

“I said, ‘Go out real fast, spook the kid, and hang on,’ ” Salo said.

Simmons followed the instructions to the letter.