Go Big Red: Winter/Spring 2025

Lawrenceville’s newest class of Athletic Hall of Famers earned their plaques in a variety of ways.

Big Red’s last unbeaten and untied football team racked up one last victory when the 1962 squad was inducted into Lawrenceville’s Athletic Hall of Fame during the Home for Hill Weekend in November. They were joined by fellow inductees Grant Newsome ’15, Melissa Magee Speidel P’10 ’12, and Aaron David Whitehurst Jr. ’04.

The inductees join 117 current members whose names are inscribed on plaques in the Big Red Reading Room in Tsai Field House.

Lawrenceville’s football program was coming off four consecutive undefeated seasons, but many expected the 1962 team to take a step back that fall. The offense featured an undersized backfield and an inexperienced offensive line, and on paper, the attack seemed underwhelming. But prognosticators should have paid more attention to the other side of the ball, where the defense would yield an average of just 7.1 points per game. Behind those stingy “Red Raiders,” Lawrenceville’s scoring clip of 22.8 points per game was more than enough.

The season finale saw Hill School race out to a 12-0 lead, but a score by Laird Busse ’64 got Big Red on the board, followed by the extra point by Bob Poitras ’63 P’90. A fourth-quarter touchdown by Todd Orvald ’63 P’89 ’95 sealed the deal for Lawrenceville, which edged their rival by a single point and ensured immortality for head coach Jack Reydel H’60 ’62 ’65 ’67 ’68’s gutsy squad.

Representing the 1962 team at the induction were Orvald, Ed Dimon ’63, Larry Tondel ’64, and captain Bob Casey ’63 P’92 GP’21 ’24.

Melissa Magee Speidel began her 30-year tenure at Lawrenceville in 1987 as assistant athletic director and right away played a pivotal role in establishing the School’s first girls’ sports programs. She is the namesake of Lawrenceville’s Melissa Magee Speidel Best Female Athlete Award.

Speidel developed a passion for sports at an early age. In high school, she made the boys’ tennis team and was introduced to field hockey. At Ursinus College, she competed in field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse, and was enshrined in its Hall of Fame in 1992. A member of the U.S. National Field Hockey team, Speidel missed a chance to compete in the Olympics in Moscow due to the United States’ boycott of the 1980 Summer Games.

Speidel led the field hockey program at The College of New Jersey to three NCAA Division III National Championships and an AIAW championship in lacrosse in 1981 and is a 1996 inductee of the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Grant Newsome graduated as one of the best dual-sport athletes in Lawrenceville history after starring in basketball and football. On the gridiron, he was a three-year starter, played on the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Prep League champions, and was a captain, twice earning first-team All-M.A.P.L. honors before being named a Semper Fidelis All-American. His playing career at the University of Michigan was halted by a knee injury as a sophomore, but Newsome nevertheless earned Academic All Big-Ten Player and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors. After being cleared to play as a senior, Newsome opted to medically retire from football and immediately joined the Wolverines’ coaching staff as a student assistant.

In 2022, he became a full-time assistant coach on the Michigan staff and served as tight ends coach for the team that won the 2023 national championship. In 2024, he was named the program’s offensive line coach. Newsome is a two-time selection to the 247 Sports 30 Under 30 list, which recognizes the best coaches under the age of 30.

Another two-sport star, Aaron David Whitehurst Jr. was a key member of one of best basketball teams in Big Red history and a record setter in both the high jump and 110-meter hurdles. He was a track-and-field captain, a Mid-Atlantic Prep League and New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association champion at Lawrenceville before excelling in both sports at the University of Pennsylvania.

Whitehurst was a defensive stopper for two Ivy League title-winners in basketball who, days after the hoops season ended, would swap his sneakers for track spikes. As a freshman in 2005, he earned first-team All-Ivy honors and captured the 110-meter hurdles title at the 2005 Heptagonal Championships. He recorded the seventh-best ever time in the event for the Quakers.

Exactly fifty years after his father led Lawrenceville to its first lacrosse state title, Marsh Chambers ’77 helped lift Nantucket High School to its first.

If you listen closely enough, you just might sense that life moves in a rhythm, like the cadence of the waves rolling in on the shores of a Nantucket beach. Things happen, and then they happen again, even if it’s years later.

Like exactly fifty years later.

A decade and a half after Marshall Chambers H’58 ’62 P’77 established the boys’ lacrosse program at Lawrenceville – there were only boys at the School in those days – his team captured its first state championship in 1974.

In the late 1990s, his son, Marsh Chambers ’77, helped get the boys’ lacrosse program off the ground at Nantucket High School. Last June, coaching with his brother, Sammy Chambers, Marsh helped lead the Whalers to their first state championship when they claimed the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 4 title over Sandwich, 7-6.

Their triumph came exactly fifty years after “Big Marsh” saw his Big Red team break through. A great deal has changed since then, but the two title-winning teams do share at least one other thing in common: their biggest fan.

“It was special because I have seen so much that I really know the game, and to watch them in the beginning and progress to what they were at the end, it was amazing,” Ginnie Chambers H’54 ’58 ’59 ’60 ’61 ’62 ’66 ’67 ’68 ’71 ’73 ’79 ’80 ’89 P’77, who cheered in person at both championship tilts, told the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “They learned and they grew and they became a championship team. It was amazing how that team developed.”

Even at 96, Ginnie remained a fixture at Whalers games and was there when the island celebrated the team with a parade through the cobblestone streets of its downtown.

“They’re such a good group of kids, all of them,” she said. “They all call me Mimi, and they’re all friends with Colton.”

Colton is Colton “Cole” Chambers, Sammy’s son, a team captain who scored twice for the Whalers in the state final. He is Ginnie’s grandson and Marsh’s godson.

“I still can’t believe it,” Cole told the Nantucket Current after the game. “I can’t believe this is happening right now. It is crazy. This is what we all dreamed of and worked for our whole lives.”

Marsh says he often channels his father’s understated style when working with the Nantucket squad, and he hears the echo of his lessons at particular moments, such as the first few after the state final.

“When I ran onto the field after the final whistle, I didn’t know what to do. His voice was right there: Act like you’ve been there before,” he said to the Inquirer and Mirror. “So, I took like three more steps and I said, ‘I’ve never been here before, I can act the way I want.’ But I heard it. He was definitely there.”

Lawrenceville’s girls’ and boys’ squash teams finished fourth and ninth, respectively, at the 2025 U.S. High School Team Championships in February. The annual tournament brought 112 boys’ and 96 girls’ teams to Philadelphia to compete for their titles. The strong showing by the girls’ and boys’ teams came on the heels of both repeating as Mid-Atlantic Prep League champions the week prior.

The girls entered the tournament ranked second in the country. After defeating Conestoga (Pa.) High School, 6-1, in the Round of 16 and Pingry School, 4-3, in the quarterfinals, Big Red was blanked 7-0 by top-seeded Greenwich Academy in the semis. The girls were edged 5-2 by Tabor Academy, which had already knocked out the third-seeded Agnes Irwin School, to place fourth.

The boys came into the tournament ranked ninth. After a 6-1 first-round loss to The Haverford School, the boys moved into the consolation round and defeated Belmont Hill, 5-2, and Rye Country School, 5-2, to clinch the School’s second Top 10 finish of the weekend.

Both programs sustained a level of excellence set in 2024, when the girls’ and boys’ squash teams finished second and eighth, respectively. That represented the highest-ever tournament finish for the girls.

When USA Lacrosse sought a coach to lead its U.S. Youth National Teams at the Under-15 age grouping, its search inevitably led it to Lawrenceville and the one who has guided his squad to two consecutive national championships among high school teams.

Jon Posner, Big Red’s head boys’ lacrosse coach, was tapped to lead USA Lacrosse’s U-15 team in March as part of the National Team Development Program.

“It’s a great opportunity, and I can’t wait to get started,” Posner said.

Since taking over as the head coach Lawrenceville in 2020, Posner has turned the program into a national power, including consecutive No. 1 finishes in the USA Lacrosse Magazine Top 25 and the Q-Collar Inside Lacrosse National Power Rankings in 2023 and 2024. Prior to that, he built the program at Culver Academy in Indiana into one of the nation’s best, including three No. 1 national rankings. He has a career coaching record of 344-64 entering the 2025 season, and more than 150 of his players have gone on to play college lacrosse.

“I’m incredibly honored to be named the head coach of the U-15 Team USA,” Posner said. “Any time you have the chance to represent your country, it’s special, and I’m excited to work with these young athletes at such a pivotal stage in their development.”

Lawrenceville’s program, he explained, “emphasizes accountability, a relentless work ethic, and being great teammates — values that translate at any level. I hope to instill that same culture within Team USA, helping these players grow both on and off the field while competing at the highest level.”

Posner believes the opportunity to collaborate, learn, and compete on the international stage will not only help Team USA succeed but will also push him to be a better coach.

“I look forward to bringing those experiences back to Lawrenceville to continue elevating our program and helping our players grow,” he said.

Lawrenceville successfully defended the Meigs-Green Cup during Hill Weekend in November. The trophy was presented after football’s 26-14 win, their fifth in a row, including a victory over the M.A.P.L. champ, Blair.

Boys’ cross county ran its way to the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship this past fall behind the strong efforts of Taksh Gupta ’25, who won the individual title. The Big Red girls finished second in the M.A.P.L.

Girls’ tennis claimed the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship, with Katelyn Ni ’26, Mahika Kasarabada ’26, and Blair Bartlett ’27 all earning First Team All-M.A.P.L. honors.

Girls’ volleyball won the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship as well as the New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association Prep A title. Jalia Dublin ’25, Alice Kizilbash ’25, and Madisyn Stockwell ’27 were N.J.I.S.A.A. Prep A All-League.

Captains Taylor Hill ’25 and Lexie Koch ’25 earned First Team All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League honors in field hockey.

Ava Chincarini ’28 of the girls’ soccer team was named to the All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League and All-New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association First Teams. Stamatis Golfinopoulos ’25 was First Team All-M.A.P.L. in boys’ soccer.

Boys’ Water Polo won the Garden State Tournament and finished fourth at the Easterns, where their girl counterparts finished third.

Girls’ fencing successfully defended its N.J.I.S.A.A. championship in February. The boys’ team finished second. The girls’ and boys’ indoor track and field teams both captured their respective N.J.I.S.A.A. and M.A.P.L. championships in February.

Blair Bartlett ’27 set a school record in the 3200m with a time of 10:29.59, the second-fastest time in the United States this season, at the N.J.I.S.A.A. Championships. She also ran a Big Red record time of 2:13.30 in the 800m, good for 21^st in the nation, and the 1000m.

Sofia Swindell ’25 broke her own school record in the 55m hurdles, running in 7.97 seconds in the N.J.I.S.A.A. finals. It marks the 13^th-fastest time in the country this season and is the first time Sofia has shattered the 8-second barrier. She also set records in the 800m, 400m, and 300m.

Audrey Cheng ’25 set a school record in the pole vault at the M.A.P.L. Championships, soaring to a height of 11 feet, 7 inches, to claim the title.

Lexie Koch ’25 bested her previous 60m school record of 8.23 seconds with a time of 7.99 at the Penn Relays Winter Showcase, where Mike Bradley ’25 set new school marks in the 60m and 200m and Owen Eldridge ’25 set a record in the 3000m, the No. 90 time in the country.

At the Jambar Coaches Invitational in New York, Dele Joa-Griffith ’26 broke the school record in 600m, clocking in at 1:24.71 seconds; Jael Gaines ’26 set a school record time of 1:17.59 in the 500m, her first-ever time ever running the event.