AUBURN – Spring is everyone’s time of renewal of Maine. It’s especially true for the Edward Little High School boys’ track and field team.

Not that the Red Eddies need to apologize for their winter exploits. Fifth in the 2008 Class A state meet and eighth in 2009 wasn’t bad. But there’s no question that the runners, jumpers and throwers toiled in the shadow of a basketball team that competed for regional and state championships each year.

“I joked with my indoor team that if we’d gone head-to-head with the basketball team in a dual track meet, they might have beaten us,” said EL boys’ track coach Ryan LaRoche. “It would have been close.”

Fortunately for LaRoche, February gives way to March and April. That’s when the two teams essentially merge, forming an outdoor Goliath that should throw its annual scare into the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

The Eddies’ roster grew from 38 to 63 between seasons. Twenty are seniors. Eleven scored points at last year’s Class A outdoor championship or this season’s indoor showcase, or both.

“We have a bunch of well-rounded athletes that can place in three, four, five events,” said Merton “Buddy” Foss, a two-time outdoor state champion and state record-holder in the 4×100 relay. “Every single person here can do that.”

Foss is a winter and spring star for EL. So are Josh Clark and Brandon Gruver (pole vault and relays), Jacob Dubois (shot put), Taka Ranucci (sprints and relays), Faisal Noor (distance), Jon Ford (shot put, discus) and Chris Caiani (middle distances, relays).

Now add football linchpin Dylon Therrien (all field events), versatile Jeremy Theriault (middle distances) and basketball cornerstones Tyler Gammon (distance), Steven Giorgetti (sprints and relays), James Philbrook (high jumps, hurdles) and Sean Daigle (discus, javelin).

Blend in Sadam Abdi, a transfer from Lewiston by way of Minnesota who was on the winning 4×800 relay team for the Blue Devils at last year’s states.

It creates a team that has won more than 100 consecutive regular-season meets and every conference title since its move to the KVAC in 2004 look stronger, deeper and scarier than ever.

“We’re huge this year,” Gruver said. “Just what we drew from basketball alone helps us so much.”

Some of EL’s toughest competition will take place Monday through Thursday in practice.

In the 800 meters, for instance, at any given meet LaRoche could call on Theriault, Gammon, Abdi or Caiani.

“Distance events definitely have been getting competitive the last few practices,” said Gammon, who placed fifth in the 800 at the state meet last June. “Tradition is big, because so many kids have done things in the past and a lot of people come in and want to be that next guy.”

“There’s a lot of drive through those workouts to push the other guy, to beat him out and not get beat by that guy,” echoed Clark.

Even traditionally weaker events are in capable hands, or feet.

Gruver will get a push from Giorgetti and sophomore Mike Lucas in the hurdle events. Abdi’s arrival and Noor’s emergence mean that Gammon won’t be a lone ranger in the 1,600 or 3,200.

Sprints have long been EL’s bread and butter, including state champions Colby Brooks and John Alexander before Foss. Now, the short run could be the Eddies’ thinnest area.

“Depth is definitely a big part of it. Each year we seem to get a little bigger. I was just going through the uniforms and we’re not going to have enough of a couple of different parts of the uniforms, which means we’re a little bigger than last year,” LaRoche said. “But the senior talent on this team is very, very strong this year. It’s a talented group. It’s not just a quantity thing.”

Quantity is enough to keep that century mark and the conference championship streak alive.

Winning the first Class A state crown since 2003 is an unspoken goal. Getting there will mean fulfilling another of the Red Eddies’ resolutions.

“If people keep improving their marks, meet-in, meet-out, then we will have a bigger team (qualified for) states and KVACs, and it will help us out a lot,” Foss said.