It may never appear on a Trivial Pursuit card, but what Lincoln East High School has achieved in boysâ tennis is something for the recordbooks. The national recordbooks that is.

Records are made to be broken, but what Lincoln East has accomplished in high school boysâ tennis is likely to remain in the books for a long time.

Two years ago, Coach Jeff Hoham saw his team win its sixth consecutive state title. Hoham did some probing, and his search led to an exciting disovery: No high school boysâ tennis program using the "true team" (six-player) format could claim that many state titles in a row.

"Some school in Colorado had won 19 (state titles) in a row, but they send only three kids to state (No.1 singles and No.1 doubles)," said Hoham. "I discovered that what we had done was a national record for the format we use (six-player, with no player allowed to play more than once)." The six-player, true-team format has been in effect in Nebraska since 1977.

Two years later, East now has won eight straight at state, thus making its national record even more difficult to attain.

Hoham said East did what it could to ensure the Spartans faced the stiffest challenge this fall. Although its enrollment (under 900 in grades 10-12) fell short of making Class Aâs top 24 in tennis, East requested and was granted a waiver that allowed it to continue to compete in Class A.

Despite playing up a class and spate of injuries, East rolled to another unbeaten dual-meet season. The Spartansâ dual-meet record during their eight-year reign is 112-2, including 95 wins in their last 96 dual meets.

The only blemishes since the start of the 1988 season have been:

*A loss to Lincoln Southeast in 1988.

*And, a loss to Millard North in 1993, snapping a 55-meet winning streak.