Late 1990s part; just before the dawn of V-brakes. I've seen a version of it on some Treks, as well; want to say it was a DiaCompe part.
Not surprising; Cannondale seems to have been one of the last holdouts for SunTour and non-Shimano components.

Once you get into suspension and the late-NORBA era of sloping top tubes and compact rear triangles; cantis get hard to package. V-brakes are much more accommodating in terms of cable routing, and are simpler to install/setup, to boot
Alternate cantis were sort of a stop -gap; none of them lasted very long