GORHAM, Maine – Freshman Ryker Paradis (Lewiston, Maine) of the University of Southern Maine men's track & field team has been named the 2026 Little East Conference Men's Field Rookie of the Year. Paradis placed second in both the shot put with a mark of 16.50m and the discus with a mark of 47.27m on Saturday at the LEC Championships to earn Second Team All-LEC honors in each event. He also finished third in the javelin with a mark of 52.34m to earn Third Team All-LEC status. Paradis was also named to the LEC All-Rookie team in each of the three events.

Paradis was one of several Huskies to receive all-conference honors as LEC announced its full slate of post-season awards and honors on Thursday morning. In addition to his placement at the conference championships, Paradis currently ranks 13 in the NCAA Division III in the shot put with a mark of 17.25m and leads the East region. He also ranks 25th nationally in the discus with a mark of 50.00m.

Seniors Michael D'Amico (Belgrade Lakes, Maine/Messalonskee) and Treshaun Brown (Kittery, Maine) each earned First Team All-LEC honors by winning event titles on Saturday.  D'Amico placed first in the pole vault with a mark of 4.40m. Brown won the triple jump with a mark of 13.41m and placed second in the long jump at 6.46m. 

Second Team honors were awarded to freshman Dylan Courtney (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) in the pole vault and the 4x100 relay team of sophomore Reegan Buck (Portland, Maine), senior Maddox Cahill (Sunapee, N.H.), freshman Kody McCranie (Bow, N.H.) and sophomore Logan Berube (Turner, Maine/Leavitt Area). Courtney placed second in the pole vault with a mark of 4.30 and also earned All-Rookie honors. The 4x100 team recorded the eighth-best time in program history at 42.11 seconds.

Senior Christian Burke (York, Maine) earned a pair of Third Team All-LEC honors by placing third in both the pole vault at 4.30m and the long jump at 6.41m. Third Team honors also went to senior Michael Cyr (Caribou, Maine) in the 1500 meters with a time of 15:40.39, senior Maddox Cahill (Sunapee, N.H.) in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.13 seconds and the USM 4x800 relay team of freshman Conner Smith (Durham, Maine/Freeport), freshman Evan Schneider (Old Orchard Beach, Maine), freshman Harry Dunne (Hollis Center, Maine/Bonny Eagle) and junior Aidan Pecoraro (Westbrook, Maine) with a time of 8:11.91.

Smith was named to the All-Rookie team for the 1500 meters after placing fourth with a time of 4:07.98.

2026 Little East Conference Major Awards
Field Athlete of the Year: Ancil Alexander - University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Track Athlete of the Year: Kyle Thomas - Keene State College
Rookie Field Athlete of the Year: Ryker Paradis - University of Southern Maine
Rookie Track Athlete of the Year: Hagen Drake - Eastern Connecticut State University
Coaching Staff of the Year: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth    

All-Conference Teams

Event	First Team	Second Team	Third Team	All-Rookie
100	Kyle Thomas	Griff Massahos	Justin Andrade	Griff Massahos
	Keene State	Plymouth State	UMass Dartmouth	Plymouth State
200	Kyle Thomas	Griff Massahos	Daniel Jordan	Griff Massahos
	Keene State	Plymouth State	UMass Dartmouth	Plymouth State
400	Zane Gordon	James Saint-Jean	Zach Hodge	Kyle Kornacki
	UMass Dartmouth	Eastern Connecticut	Plymouth State	Eastern Connecticut
800	Owen Schenck	Zach D'Andrea	Joseph Stanton	Edward Yeboah
	Rhode Island College	Eastern Connecticut	UMass Dartmouth	UMass Dartmouth
1,500	Cameron Thompson	Samuel Ambrocio	Zach D'Andrea	Conner Smith
	UMass Dartmouth	Eastern Connecticut	Eastern Connecticut	Southern Maine
5,000	Griffin Urnezis	Max Goodman	Michael Cyr	Andrew Klinedinst
	Keene State	Plymouth State	Southern Maine	Keene State
10,000	Andrew Frezza	Noah Hauswirth	Ben Tetu	Luke Dalton
	Rhode Island College	Eastern Connecticut	Keene State	Eastern Connecticut
110 Hurdles	Hagen Drake	Marcos Uben	Justin Riley	Hagen Drake
	Eastern Connecticut	Rhode Island College	UMass Boston	Eastern Connecticut
400 Hurdles	Jack McEntee	Hagen Drake	Maddox Cahill	Hagen Drake
	Rhode Island College	Eastern Connecticut	Southern Maine	Eastern Connecticut
Steeplechase	Griffin Urnezis	Ben Colby	Jake Thompson	Tyler Boudreau
	Keene State	Plymouth State	Eastern Connecticut	Rhode Island College
High Jump	Sean Patrone	Loudon Chupas	None	Ewan McLeod
	UMass Dartmouth	Rhode Island College		UMass Dartmouth
		Vincenzo Videtta
		UMass Dartmouth
Long Jump	Jayden Francois	Treshaun Brown	Christian Burke	Jayden Francois
	UMass Dartmouth	Southern Maine	Southern Maine	UMass Dartmouth
Triple Jump	Treshaun Brown	Joshua Dabanka	Tristan Nye	Tristan Nye
	Southern Maine	Rhode Island College	Eastern Connecticut	Eastern Connecticut
Pole Vault	Michael D'Amico	Dylan Courtney	Christian Burke	Dylan Courtney
	Southern Maine	Southern Maine	Southern Maine	Southern Maine
Discus	Ancil Alexander	Ryker Paradis	Enzo Valenti	Ryker Paradis
	UMass Dartmouth	Southern Maine	Plymouth State	Southern Maine
Hammer	Brandon Mota	Enrique Edjang	Joseph Owanogho	Michael Gama
	Rhode Island College	Rhode Island College	UMass Dartmouth	UMass Dartmouth
Javelin	Troy Tenney	Loudon Chupas	Ryker Paradis	Ryker Paradis
	Keene State	Rhode Island College	Southern Maine	Southern Maine
Shot Put	Ancil Alexander	Ryker Paradis	Mickey Valentino	Ryker Paradis
	UMass Dartmouth	Southern Maine	UMass Dartmouth	Southern Maine
4x100	Keene State	Southern Maine	UMass Dartmouth
	Alex Nimiroski, Kyle Thomas, Jonathan DeAguiar, Sean Von Ranson	Reegan Buck, Maddox Cahill, Kody McCranie, Logan Berube	Justin Andrade, Daniel Jordan, Zane Gordon, Shemar Dillon
4x400	Eastern Connecticut	Plymouth State	Rhode Island College
	James Saint-Jean, Hagen Drake, Amadeus Bonilla, Jakeem Wilson	Jiasen Smith, Cam Lee, Isaias Aguasvivas Pena, Zach Hodge	Marcos Uben, Owen Schenck, Brody Shiels, Jack McEntee
4x800	UMass Dartmouth	Eastern Connecticut	Southern Maine
	Edward Yeboah, Zachary Shute, Cameron Thompson, Joseph Stanton	Joseph Caruk, Kyle Kornacki, Zach D'Andrea, Samuel Ambrocio	Conner Smith, Evan Schneider, Harry Dunne, Aidan Pecoraro