Wery Finds Consolation Amid Tragedy : Golf: She is runner-up at Junior Golf Championships. Her mind is on her cousin, who was shot earlier this week.

Jill Wery could safely say that she was not the least bit dejected Friday by finishing runner-up to Debbie Kim in the San Diego County Junior Golf Championships.

Wery’s mind was on her cousin, who had been shot Tuesday.

Wery, 16, lost by four strokes to Kim in the girls’ 15-17 division, but by Wednesday’s second round she could care less where she finished, as long as Heather Wery--caught in a gang shootout the previous night--was alive.

Heather Wery, 12, was rushed to a hospital with a bullet wound in the buttocks after trying to flee--along with five other youths--from a gunman at approximately 9:25 p.m. in her Linda Vista apartment complex. The assailant shot a seventh member of the group, Xiong Yang, 16, in the head.

Heather was fortunate. Her injury was relatively minor. Xiong died.

“I think that she was released today,” said Jill, who added she might have withdrawn from the tournament at Balboa Park Golf Course had her cousin’s condition been more severe.

As it was, Wery said the shock of learning her young cousin had been shot was enough to make her re-evaluate things, like competition on a golf course and survival in the complex where Heather lives.

Said Jill, “It made the tournament a lot less important.”

Figuring out how to beat Debbie Kim, after they both shot 78 in the first round, was no longer a concern. Protecting her family was. In gang-related incidents, it is best to be sketchy on details--which might account for Jill’s uncertainty about Heather’s discharge. The San Diego Police Dept. never released the name of the hospital to which she was taken Tuesday.

Police said eight persons were injured in two gang-related confrontations that night. Along with Heather Wery, Bee Vang, 20, was shot in the chase but was listed in fair condition with a wound to the upper body. Later, five people were treated for pellet wounds in a shooting around 12:45 a.m. Wednesday at the corner of 50th Street and Orange Avenue, an apparent retaliation by a Cambodian street gang.

Yang was visiting a friend at the complex where Jill Wery’s cousins live when two gunmen approached the gathering and asked him if he was affilitated with a gang, police said. Yang declared his gang membership and was shot. He was rushed to Mercy Hospital and he died late Wednesday night.

Jill Wery spent the final three rounds of the tournament trying to block the traumatic event from her mind. On the driving range before tee-off Wednesday, Wery told her close friend Kim what had happened.

“She just mentioned it briefly,” Kim said. “I read about it in the paper, but I didn’t want to ask, because that’s personal. She seemed really worried, but she was her old self--like in a good mood.”

Each girl shot her worst round of the tournament that day on the par-72, 5,391-yard course. Wery shot an 82, Kim an 81 to take a one-stroke lead. Kim came back with a 76 Thursday to move three in front of Wery, who shot 78. Kim, whose four-round total was 313, picked up one more stroke on the final round with a 79. Wery shot 80.

“I don’t feel I played my best on any day,” Wery said. “I had good holes and stuff, but I never put together a really good round.

“(The shooting) affected me, but I knew that my cousins were all right and (Heather) wasn’t seriously hurt and that they were staying at our house.”

Tournament Notes

Debbie Kim, 17, said Friday’s victory was special because it was her final junior tournament. . . . Because of an unusual format, Jill Wery was named champion of the girls’ 15-17 division, despite finishing second to Kim. Kim was named the girls’ overall champion. . . . The same format applied to the boys’ 15-17 division, where Pat Perez shot a one-under-par 71 to capture the overall boys title with a four-round score of 284. Lenny Hall, who shot 294 for the tournament, was the division winner. . . . Mike Mehran (313) was a three-stroke winner over Mike Desmarais in the boys’ 13-14 division, while Michelle Sperry (338) beat Shannon Ingalls by two shots in the girls’ 13-14 division.