Kyle Kovacs might be a little unfamiliar with the lead role, but based upon his performance this season, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Kovacs, captain of the No. 5 Harvard co-ed sailing team, spent his first three years sailing in the shadows of former Crimson great Clay Johnson ’07, even taking second to Johnson’s first at last year’s New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Singlehanded Championships.

And, at singlehanded nationals the following month, it was Kovacs in fourth as Johnson rounded out the top three.

Fast-forward a year, and it’s Kovacs who’s alone in the driver’s seat.

He proved as much a week ago, taking first place at the 2007 NEISA Singlehanded Championships. The win clinched his second-straight nationals birth, scheduled to take place next month in Seattle.

It will be Kovacs’ second try at nationals competition, after he finished just outside the top four as a sophomore.

“After coming so close last year to winning nationals, it was definitely a goal of mine, to make it there and be in contention at nationals again,” Kovacs said.

His finish a week ago didn’t come without a bit of last-second drama. Kovacs stumbled out of the gate and fell behind Yale’s Thomas Barrows early, finishing as low as 12th in once race, but he bounced back in the meat of the regatta, finishing outside the top four only two times in the event’s 12 races.

He also notched three second-place showings and won three times in the last five races.

It was his last victory that was, not surprisingly, his most important.

“It was kind of nerve-racking, because it came down to the last race, and there were definitely moments where he was beating me,” Kovacs said of his last race with Barrows.

In the end, Kovacs eked out the victory, giving him a 44-point total that was just good enough to hold off Barrows and secure the win.

He earned NEISA Sailor of the Week honors for his effort, the second time this year that he’s garnered the award.

It came on a weekend that featured a wide range of weather, which played right into kovacs’ experienced hands.

“I saw a whole variety of conditions,” he said.

That included very flat water on the first day and the second afternoon, while on the morning of day two, the waters at Boston College featured big waves and strong winds.

“I think it was good for me to see a whole range of conditions,” Kovacs said. “I’m not necessarily the best in any specific conditions, but I can do well in most of them.”

On most weekends, Kovacs sails with fellow senior Elyse Dolbec, his crew for over a year who has seen Kovacs grow from playing second-fiddle to a Harvard legend to leading a resurgent Crimson squad to what is shaping up to be the team’s best performance in two seasons.

“Kyle and I work really well together,” Dolbec said earlier this season. “We have high expectations for what we can do this year.”

The next two weeks will force Kovacs to shift his focus back to team regattas, helping him hone his skills on the water a few more times before he takes one final stab at the top honor in all of individual collegiate sailing.

If all works out, Kovacs could cement his place among the greatest athletes in Harvard sailing history.

“I’m very excited to go back,” he said, “and hopefully this year I’ll be able to finish it out.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.