By Kim J. Harmon

SOUTHBURY – It was one of the last things Brian Reiff will witness as coach of the Newtown High School swim team, but it was – without a doubt in his mind – the most amazing.

The Nighthawks’ 200-yard freestyle relay team stepped up onto the blocks at the South-West Conference championship meet on Saturday at Pomperaug High School in Southbury seeded second with a optimistic seed time of 1:37.00 and all the relay did was simply blow away the field to capture first with a new school record time of 1:35 flat.

The foursome – Matt Fries leading off, Jeff Heller, Bryan Kotwicki, and Kane Kunst anchoring – shattered their personal best time of 1:37.38 in the event (accomplished in a loss to Trumbull a few weeks ago).

“I still can’t stop thinking about it,” said coach Reiff, who had retired this past fall only to return right before the season began because a suitable replacement hadn’t been found. “In my nine years, it’s the most amazing moment I’ve had.”

What was, perhaps, even more amazing was the effort by Kunst, the anchor. Just moments after winning (and setting a new school record in) the 500-yard freestyle, the senior came around for the relay and turned in an incredible finish as the Nighthawks crushed Bunnell-Stratford by almost a second-and-a-half.

The splits:

Matt Fries                     23.9

Jeff Heller                     23.4

Bryan Kotwicki               23.4

Kane Kunst                    22.9

Fries staked Newtown to a big lead, right after the first turn . . .

“Before the SWCs started, we really wanted to break the record, wanted it so bad,” Fries said, “and we knew we could get it. Nut the only way to get it was to get out to a fast start.”

. . . and Heller extended it.

“Before we started (the event), I was looking in lane three,” said Heller. “I wasn’t sure who they were, but they looked good. I was hoping to just keep the lead – but it was close and we wanted to break the record.”

Kotwicki, perched No. 3 in the rotation, needed to provide Kunst with some cushion to combat the other anchors on the blocks and he did more than that.

“I was extremely nervous,” said Kotwicki, “and afraid I’d get a false start and blow the lead. But I didn’t and I just pushed it as hard as I could.”

Kunst – who watched what the three guys did before him with some amazement – just finished it off as he is so accustomed to doing.

“I honestly didn’t think we could do it,” Kunst admitted, “but you never know what some pumped up guys could do.”

On Monday morning, coach Reiff said there hadn’t been three minutes all weekend where he didn’t think about the 200-yard freestyle relay and the effort his four sprinters gave him – not three minutes all weekend.

“I knew Matt had the potential to be our fastest leadoff swimmer,” said coach Reiff. “I was hoping to see if we could get off to any kind of lead – and I never thought he’d get off to that kind of lead. Jeff gave us more cushion and when Bryan got into the water I knew the only way we would lose was if he somehow missed the wall (on his turn).”

It was an exciting moment for the Nighthawks, who finished 7-9 during the dual meet season (down from the 14-2 campaign of 1999-2000) and fifth overall at the SWC meet.

“It has been a great finish,” admitted coach Reiff, who added, “We could have run the table from the point when we were 4-8. All we needed was a couple of breaks. But since February 1, I think, the kids have been swimming great.”

But, perhaps, none greater than Kunst.

All Kunst did last Saturday was bring home three new school records – one in the 200-yard freestyle (in which he finished second to Steve Heyer of Bunnell-Stratford Co-Op), one in the 500-yard freestyle (which he won by more than six seconds over Ryan Loechner of Weston), and one in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

But it’s that second-place finish in the 200 free which still sticks in his craw a little bit.

“I’m a little bummed about that,” Kunst said. “I’m going through some hard practices now (in Wilton) and I felt I should have been able to take it.”

Kunst erases the name of Dave Hiteshew from the 500 yard freestyle (old record – 5:04.76 set in 1980) and Marc Gardner in the 200 yard freestyle (old record – 1:52.36 set in 1990) and joins his teammates in erasing the names of Sean Martins, Brian Monahan, Christer Rundlof and Matt Burns in the 200 yard freestyle relay (old record – 1:35.90 set in 1994).

So, now that Kunst owns or shares three school records, he may decide shoot for a couple more – in the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard backstroke – when it comes time for the CIAC Class L state meet.

The 2000-2001 season wasn’t only Kunst’s time to shine, though. With the loss of some 13 swimmers due to graduation last year, there was a big void in the pool that needed to be filled. It was time for someone to step into the spotlight.

Fries did.

So did Heller.

And Kotwicki, too.

For Fries, the last few weeks of the season have been quite unbelievable. Whether it was the 200-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle, or the 100-yard backstroke, the senior co-captain made dramatic strides almost overnight.

“This being my senior year,” Fries said, “I knew the only way I could accomplish my goals was to swim the best I could. As a sophomore, I had that ruptured spleen and as a junior my goggles slipped in the biggest meet of the year, so that gave me some motivation.”

For Heller, the improvement was a bit quieter, but no less dramatic. And he points to something a bit more mundane than the effort and solid work ethic that his coach has been known to go on and on about.

“Usually in February,” Heller said, “I start to drop – that’s just the way it goes. I drop a lot of time when I start to wear my cap.”

And Kotwicki, well, he – much like Ryan Eberts before him – made such an improvement from one year to the next that the two Kotwicki’s (the 1999-2000 version and the 2000-2001 version) cannot even be compared in the same breath.

“Really, what helped me was swimming my practices next to Jeff Heller,” said Kotwicki. “He does everything as hard as he could and that just pushed me harder. Kane also helped me with my technique and coach Reiff has always encouraged me because I think he felt I could become a more competitive swimmer.”

Now, maybe the season was a bit of a downturn from the successes of the past, but the Nighthawks still managed to find a lot of success along the way.

“I could definitely feel some satisfaction,” said Kunst. “This was supposed to be a rebuilding year – like next year – but we’ve come around from what every expected of us at the beginning of the season.”

Heller added, “This year, we knew we wouldn’t win the SWCs, but we still felt like we could do well individually and improve our times.”

And the team – the four relay guys especially – will always have that exciting race to remember.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d break a record here,” said Kotwicki.

SWC Championships

Team Scores

1. Pomperaug (382); 2. Weston (347); 3. Brookfield (343); 4. New Fairfield (320); 5. Newtown (228); 6. Bunnell/Stratford Co-Op (193); 7. Milford Co-Op (127); 8. New Milford (108); 9. Masuk (88).

Individual Results

200 relay medley – 1. Weston 1:43.72; 2. New Fairfield (Monaghan, Krompinger, Finnerty, Macciaroli) 1:45.09; 3. Pomperaug 1:45.99; 4. Newtown (Kane Kunst, Jeff Heller, Tim Robinson, Bryan Kotwicki) 1:48.56; 5. Brookfield 1:46.69; 6. Milford 1:56.76.

200 freestyle – 1. Heyer (BSC) 1:49.12 (new SWC record); 2. Kunst (N) 1:50.37; 3. Edwards (BR) 1:54.06; 4. Loechner (W) 1:54.61; 5. Fries (N) 1:56.28; 6. Zimmerman (PHS) 1:57.15.

200 individual medley – 1. Monaghan (NF) 2:01.79; 2. Bauer (PHS) 2:03.81; 3. Simmerman (W) 2:08.85; 4. Sandroni (PHS) 2:11.76; 5. Ross (BR) 2:14.65; 6. Krompinger (NF) 2:16.79.

50 freestyle – 1. Oberman (W) 22.98; 2. Swan (PHS) 23.40; 3. Macciaroli (NF) 23.69; 4. Tanz (BR) 24.20; 5. Barrett (PHS) 24.22; 6. DiForio (W) 24.26.

Diving – 1. Brosseu (W) 365.65; 2. Dunn (BR) 290.60; 3. Peter Schmidt (PHS) 268.30; 4. Pierce (M) 265.00; 4. 5. Jackson (NF) 250.45; 6. Hauser (NM) 249.75.

100 butterfly – 1. Monaghan (NF) 53.11 (new SWC record); 2. Simmerman (W) 55.39; 3. Symons (W) 56.90; 4. Finnerty (NF) 57.52; 5. Seeley (BR) 58.32; 6. Tanz (BR) 58.60.

100 freestyle – 1. Heyer (BSC) 48.83; 2. Macciaroli (NF) 52.04; 3. Carroll (BSC) 53.42; 4. DiForio (W) 53.53; 5. Ulatowski (MC) 53.80; 6. Zimmerman (PHS) 53.87.

500 freestyle – 1. Kunst (N) 5:02.21; 2. Loechner (W) 5:08.97; 3. Sandroni (PHS) 5:16.16; 4. Goldberg (BR) 5:21.12;  5. Cincogrono (PHS) 5:25.15; 6. Romatzick (BSC) 5:27.09.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (Matt Fries, Jeff Heller, Bryan Kotwicki, Kane Kunst) 1:35.00; 2. Bunnell-Stratford Co-Op 1:36.39; 3. Pomperaug 1:36.68; 4. Brookfield 1:36.86; 5. Weston 1:37.47; 6. Milford Co-op 1:41.99.

100 backstroke – 1. Oberman (W) 53.70; 2. Edwards (BR) 57.85; 3. Symons (W) 58.33; 4. Finnerty (NF) 59.29; 5. Fries (N) 59.41; 6. Haman (PHS) 1:01.87.

100 breaststroke – 1. Bauer (PHS) 1:01.16 (new meet record); 2. Krompinger (NF) 1:06.95; 3. Seeley (BR) 1:08.80; 4. Fellone (BR) 1:09.98; 5. Rosen (W) 1:10.37; 6. Himebaugh (BR) 1:10.67.

400 freestyle relay – 1. Weston 3:25.43; 2. New Fairfield 3:25.74; 3. Pomperaug 3:27.54; 4. Brookfield 3:30 01; 5. Bunnell-Stratford Co-Op 3:31.89; 6. Newtown 3:51.30.

Other Newtown finishers:

200 freestyle – 17. Swink, 2:10.01; 18. K. Scharf, 2:13.27.

200 individual medley – 10. Heller, 2:21.10; 21. L. Scharf, 2:39.83.

50 freestyle – 8. Kotwicki, 24.90.

Diving – 10. Sullivan; 12. Truitt.

100 butterfly – 11. Heller, 1:01.86; 13. Swink, 1:02.67; 17. Modzelewski, 1:05.87.

100 freestyle – 8. Kotwicki, 54.64.

500 freestyle – 14. K. Scharf, 6:02.02; 17. Bass, 6:21.72; 19. Morlath, 7:03.86.

100 backstroke – 13. Modzelewski, 1:07.32; 17. L. Scharf, 1:08.86.

100 breaststroke – 13. Peyton, 1:15.30; 17. Bass, 1:20.32, 18. Sparacino, 1:20.33.