The way the evening started did not seem to suggest a defeat was in the offing, but one point would separate John Carroll from Allegheny Friday night in Meadville, and the one point advantage would belong to the hosts.

Allegheny edged the Blue Streaks by a final tally of 121-120.

Complete Results

In the opening 200 Medley Relay, it was a dominant effort by the "A" quartet of Margaret Zagrobelny, Carly Adams, Anne Crowley and Amanda Casamatta that got the ball rolling, winning by over eight seconds at 1:52.23. Emma Connell, Jenna Latsko, Megan Hawk and Teresa Prinster followed in second at 2:00.03, staking JCU a 15-2 lead to start the meet.

The Gators made up the stagger in the 1000 Free, as a first, third and fourth place finish surrounding a runner-up effort by Alex Iosue eased the sting of the loss in the opening race.

From that point on, it was a series of jabs and counterjabs. Reigning OAC Swimmer of the Week Maddie Dolce collected a win in the 200 Free as did Adams in the 200 IM, but Allegheny answered with wins in the 50 Free, 1-meter diving and the 100 Fly. 

The back and forth nature of the meet continued as JCU got wins from Casamatta and Dolce in the 100 and 500 Free, respectively, while the Gators touched first in thr 100 Back and 3-meter diving.

John Carroll trailed 107-98 with two events remaining, but threw a haymaker in the penultimate race. Latsko (1:11.00), Chloe Ruggiero (1:11.43) and Jessica Morrow (1:15.01) went 1-2-3 in the 100 Breast to put the Blue Streaks on top 114-110.

Alas, needing a win in the final event, it was not to be for the Blue Streaks. In the 200 Free Relay, Allegheny's "A" relay grabbed the 11 points it needed by finishing first to edge John Carroll by a single tally.

The loss drops John Carroll's overall record to 3-2 while Allegheny improved to 1-2.