The 2026 boys outdoor track and field season is underway. With meets happening across the state, it’s time for this year’s Super 7 selections, presented by MassLive.
Alec Piepergedes, Senior, Westfield
Piepergedes qualified during the indoor season and participated in the New Balance Nationals, coming in 5th place during the 800m event with a time of 1:57:93.
In addition to this stellar performance, the senior also excelled at the 400m hurdles, setting a time under a minute for his personal best during the last outdoor season.
He owns the boys’ 1,000m school record for the Bombers, and dropped over three seconds from his PR in the event during the indoor campaign.
Shane O’Connor, Senior, Longmeadow
Last year, O’Connor placed first in nine of 10 different meets and events he competed in, an impressive record.
The senior had a signature moment in the 400 meters at last year’s WMass Championship, clocking 49.84 to set a new school record and grab a title.
Joshua Moret, Junior, Ludlow
Moret has specialized throughout his career in events such as the 200m dash. Now toward the helm of Ludlow’s track program as an upperclassman, he qualified for Adidas’ Indoor Nationals in both the 200m and 400m events over the winter.
The junior posted a pair of top-3 finishes at last year’s WMass Championships (200, 400).
Ethan Halpern, Senior, Longmeadow
Halpern appeared on the first team for All-Western Mass. for Class A during cross country season in the fall. Almost exclusively a distance runner, Halpern will mainly compete in the one and two mile races.
In the outdoor track season, Halpern placed first in the 400 meter, one mile and two mile races. He was third at WMass in the 2-mile.
Evan Hedlund, Junior, Frontier
The junior distance runner was right behind Pacheco a year ago, placing second overall in the 1-mile at both WMass and the MIAA Division VI Championships — the latter by just .33 seconds.
He was third at the state meet in the 2-mile, and was a member of the Redhawks’ 4×800 relay team that won the state title. Hedlund and senior Luke Howard, who had a huge indoor season, will be key cogs in leading Frontier this spring.
Everett Pacheco, Senior, Monument Mountain
The senior distance specialist won the 1-mile title at last year’s WMass Championship by over 10 seconds, then went on to capture the D-VI state title.
He capped his season with an eighth-place showing at the Meet of Champions, posting a personal-best time of 4:16.89.
Nicholas Leblanc, Senior, Athol
The senior throwing specialist won both the shot put and discus titles at last year’s WMass Small School Championship, both by substantial margins.
He was fifth in the discus at the D-VI Championship, qualifying for the Meet of Champions in the process.
His personal-best discus throw of 161-3 came during the regular season against Greenfield.