AUBURN - It covers eight seasons, two head coaches, two conferences, one state championship and one somber bus ride down Interstate-95.

With its victory last Friday in a meet at Bath, Edward Little High School extended its streak of consecutive, vanquished boys' outdoor track opponents past the century mark.

More than one hundred Southern Maine Activities Association and (since 2004) Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference opponents have tested their talent and depth against EL during the spring season. Over what adds up to roughly 30 meets, few even may boast of coming close.

"All the teams have really good athletes, but we're so large that we have a lot of depth," said junior Jacob Dubois, who shines in the shot put and discus for the Red Eddies.

Regular-season meets generally are used as dress rehearsals for conference and state competition. With three to six teams competing for the same point values offered at a season-ending meet where 25 schools are involved, a team with EL's roster of 52 tends to pile up the wins.

But like any streak worth touting on a T-shirt - and it didn't take long for the Eddies to break those white tops with bold, scarlet digits out of cold storage - this one had its make-or-break moment.

EL traveled to Fairfield on May 6 for a competition with host Lawrence, Waterville and Maranacook. Waterville would have been No. 99 on the list of defeated foes dating back to 2001.

One, major problem: When the scores were tallied, the Purple Panthers appeared to strong-arm bragging rights away from the Eddies by a half-point.

"Then we found a mistake, the Lawrence coach found a mistake, the Waterville coach found a mistake, and by the time it was all said and done we'd won by two-and-a-half," said EL coach Ryan LaRoche. But we rode all the way home from Lawrence thinking we'd lost the streak."

If ever there was a year for the KVAC competition to catch up with Edward Little, this probably was it.

Forty-one seniors graduated from the program over the last two years. Jumpers Ben Hartnett and Garrett Wyman and middle distance specialists Marc Raczynski and Dylan Brockway are the only returning upperclassman who score consistently.

Expectations never change, however, at a school with a combined seven boys' and girls' outdoor team state championships in its trophy case.

"It didn't feel so good," Wyman said of the mistaken result at Lawrence. "Just knowing it was my senior year and we blew it, kind of made it feel like it was my fault."

While the current Red Eddies concede that the streak is far less meaningful than a prospective conference or state championship, they also admit to keeping it in protective custody.

Most were teammates or attended youth camps with a roll call of Edward Little's most decorated athletes of this decade. Matt Capone, Nate Cleveland, Sam Fletcher, Colby Brooks, Nate Chantrill, Brian Despres and Troy Barnies might have left the program, but they left an indelible mark on their descendants.

"Those are the kids that coached me up when I was here," Dubois said. "It's just kind of cool to keep that going for them. It gives them something to be proud of."

Triple-digit winning streaks are nothing new at EL.

The girls' team, then coached by Steve Robertson, was putting the finishing touches on its own run of 100-plus just as the boys, under the direction of Dan Campbell, were launching theirs.

"Tradition definitely is a piece of it," said LaRoche. "A lot of these kids had older brothers and sisters who were in the program. They know somebody who was part of the beginning (of a streak) either on the girls' side or the boys' side. And we always seem to find a diamond in the rough."