Go Big Red: Spring 2024

Ellie Dimatos ’25 and the Under-18 Women’s National Team captured the gold at the Women’s World Championship in Switzerland.

From the local hockey rinks to Tsai Field House, Ellie Dimatos ’25 has earned plenty of notice on the ice.

In January, however, the speedy standout defender skated into the international spotlight, competing  for the Team USA Under-18 (U18) Women’s National Team in the annual International Ice Hockey Federation U18 Women’s World Championship in January in Zug, Switzerland. There, Dimatos and her Team USA mates swept six games, including winning the gold medal game, 5-1, against Czechia on January 14.

Along the way, Team USA defeated squads from Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, and Finland to set up a rematch in the finals with Czechia, to which Team USA had dropped a narrow 4-3 pre-tournament game in a shootout just days before the Championships began.

Dimatos (pictured center) set up the eventual game-winning goal against Switzerland on January 10, ripping a shot on goal from the center of the blue line. Teammate Haley Box poked home the rebound to give Team USA the lead in the eventual 4-0 shutout.

“It is awesome to get the win,” said Team USA head coach Liz Keady Norton. “I am really proud of our group. I thought that we worked hard the whole way, and so it was nice for them to be rewarded.”

Dimatos was studying for a pre-calculus test in November when she received the congratulatory email telling her she had made the U18 Women’s National Team, which she admits spoiled her focus on math.

“Yeah, I was super-excited,” she says. “My dad was super-proud of me, and I got to call my mom, who was actually visiting her family at the time in Japan, so was a sweet moment.”

Nicole Uliasz, head coach of Lawrenceville’s girls’ varsity ice hockey team since 2005, said Dimatos is the third Lawrenceville player to earn a spot on the U.S. Under-18 team during her tenure, following in the skates of Gabie Figueroa ’10 and Kate Monihan ’19.

“As Ellie always does, she will bring her skill and composure to this U.S. team,” Uliasz said after Dimatos was tapped to compete on the international stage. “When she gets back, she will continue to add depth to our team and most importantly continue to be a leader here.”

Dimatos, who led Lawrenceville defenders with ten goals in 2022-23, was “really excited” to represent her country before she headed to Switzerland.

“I’ll be on the international stage now, playing for something bigger than myself,” she said prior to the winter break. “Playing with girls who are at the top level will really help me prepare for college in two years.”

Dimatos has already committed to the admission process at Princeton University, which boasts one of the nation’s top women’s hockey teams, led by head coach Cara Morey P’22 ’24.

“Academics are important to my family, and that’s mostly why I came to Lawrenceville – and chose Princeton,” explains Dimatos, who will likely compete against her Team USA coach, Keady Norton, who is also the head women’s hockey coach at Dartmouth. “I can play hockey and benefit from the super-rigorous academic system. I get to have the best of both.”

Dimatos was inspired to play hockey by her older brother, Nick, who starred at The Hun School and is now competing for the Utica Jr. Comets of the United States Premier Hockey League prior to beginning his collegiate career.

“We train together, we work out together, we do everything together,” she explains. “We’re best friends, so he’s definitely someone who has helped me progress. I copy my game off of him.”

Dimatos, who also plays for the U19 Philadelphia Jr. Flyers, has a game worth emulating in her own right. She began skating at age 3 and was playing hockey the next year, continuing to compete on both girls’ and boys’ teams right into her time at Lawrenceville.

“In boys’ hockey, hitting is allowed, so it has definitely taught me to keep my head up and have more awareness on the ice,” she says. “That allows me to maneuver around people much easier.”

Like her brother, Dimatos enjoys playing defense. Uliasz noted that, to be a good defender, players must be “skilled, confident, and composed all the areas Ellie demonstrates.”

“She is composed with the puck when she weaves in and out of players,” Uliasz says. “Her shot is dead accurate, and she can place it by the best goalies.”

In January, the girls fencing team placed second at the Santelli Tournament, its best-ever showing, while the boys tied their best-ever finish at the Cetrulo Tournament, seventh. Both tournaments welcomed athletes from more than 50 high schools. The teams also won N.J.I.S.A.A. and M.A.P.L. titles.

The girls and boys squash teams finished second and eighth, respectively, at the 2024 U.S. High School Squash Championships in February. It is the highest-ever tournament finish for the Big Red girls.

The boys swim team won its third straight N.J.I.S.A.A. championship, with Conan Chen ’24 setting a school mark in the 100m breaststroke (57.77). Chen, Zikang Jiang ’25, Sam Xie ’24, and Daniel Lu ’24 also broke the Big Red 200m medley relay record.

Girls indoor track and field captured the N.J.I.S.A.A. Prep A title in February.

The 4x200m team of Jael Gaines ’26, Sofia Swindell ’25, Sophia Liu ’25, and Lexie Koch ’25 set a school record with a time of 1:43.20 in February at the Ocean Breeze Elite Meet.

Audrey Cheng ’25 established a new school standard in the pole vault, leaping 11 feet, 6 inches; Sofia Swindell ’25 set new marks in the 55m hurdles and 200m.

Two Big Red alums helped lead teams to NCAA titles.

In January, when Michigan dispatched Washington to claim the College Football Playoff championship, tight ends coach Grant Newsome ’15 became part of something that had eluded him during his bright-but-brief career as a player for the Maize and Blue: a national title.

“Having gotten to the playoffs [the two previous seasons] and then not being able to finish the job, we had an idea of what it took to get there,” said Newsome, a former Michigan tackle whose courageous battle back from a gruesome knee injury was detailed in the fall 2018 Lawrentian. Once the Wolverines topped powerful Penn State and Ohio State in November, “we kind of knew: Hey, this is serious. We’re a really good football team,” he recalled. “We’ve got a chance to go make a run.”

Following the season, head coach Jim Harbaugh moved on to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers and the program’s new leader, Sherrone Moore, tapped Newsome to become its offensive line coach. At a program renowned for sending linemen to the NFL, it’s one of the more prestigious position-group coaching jobs in college football.

“It’s an incredible opportunity,” Newsome said, “but also having played that position at Michigan, it definitely means a lot.”

After medically retiring from football, Newsome joined the staff as a graduate assistant in 2018. He was promoted to tight ends coach in 2022 and spent the past two seasons mentoring Luke Schoonmaker, a second-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, as well as current Wolverines’ star Colston Loveland, named by Pro Football Focus as the nation’s premier tight end entering the 2024 season.

Newsome’s national championship team wasn’t the only one coached by a Lawrenceville alumnus in 2023. Mathew Johnson ’13 serves on the staff of the University of Connecticut Huskies, who captured the men’s basketball national championship with a 17-point rout of San Diego State in the April 3 final. Johnson and this year’s UConn team are in a strong position to repeat at this year’s Final Four in Phoenix.