By Kim J. Harmon

NEW HAVEN – It took a little bit of craftiness, a little bit of strategy, and – of course – an enormous amount of talent and just like that Kane Kunst had risen into the elite class of backstrokers in the state of Connecticut.

It happened somewhat on the spur of the moment, shortly before seeding was to take place at the South-West Conference championship meet. Kane, who had swum the backstroke during meets when coach Brian Reiff was able to play around with the lineup, was expected to make a run at the 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly.

But . . .

“We were looking at the 500 and the 100 fly,” explained Kane, “but when we saw Monahan wasn’t in the backstroke we saw it as a points opportunity. It was a great decision by coach Reiff.”

Kane previously slid under a minute in the 100 back, but at the SWC championships he obliterated the field with a time of 57.08, capturing the conference title and setting himself up for a surprising shot at a CIAC Class L title.

“I’m kind of stunned that it has picked up this much,” said Kane, who trains heavily with the Wilton Wahoos. “I really just picked it up this year. It was one of those events I swam (with Newtown High School) against some weaker teams.”

When coach Reiff first decided to put Kane in the backstroke, it wasn’t only with the idea of scoring points. He was convinced Kane could win the individual title.

“I think he surprised everyone – including those who know swimming – with the way he won the backstroke . . . an event he never really concentrated on,” said coach Reiff. “But he always peaks at this time. Always does well. This is a special time of year for him.”

Kane was confident, too. “I was pretty confident,” he said, “because I had swam with the main contenders before. I was a little bit afraid of Symons, but I thought I had a great shot.”

Kane went into the CIAC Class L seeded third and after the trials last Saturday, that’s right where he stood. And after the finals on Tuesday night at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Kane was sitting in fourth with another remarkable time of 56.50 – which was less than a second off of the second-place time of 55.67.

Only a few moments later, Kane had to get back in the water for the 400-yard freestyle relay and his 50-second split – the fastest he had ever gone – helped the ‘Hawks take sixth in the event with a time of 3:28.31.

“We were disappointed with our performance before that,” said Kane, “and we wanted to leave it all in the pool. We needed to beat Fitch (the next lane over) to stay in fourth and they all just dug down deep.”

Coach Reiff was hoping Kane would qualify for the State Open in the 100 backstroke and as part of the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams (which wasn’t determined until late Wednesday night after all the class meets were over).

Kane’s success in the backstroke at Newtown opened the eyes of his coach down with the Wilton Wahoos. When he first broke a minute in the backstroke, word filtered down to his coach in Wilton and what that did was get Kane into a lot more backstroke events. And it didn’t take too long before Kane had eased past the Y Nationals cut of 56.89 with a breakneck time of 56.1 seconds.

Subsequently, during the Y Nationals in April down in Orlando, Florida, Kane – more of a distance stroke guy than a sprinter, he said – will be competing in the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley.

All this and only a junior, ready to come back in the 2000-2001 season to lead the Nighthawks again.