Some meets have a bigger feel than others during a regular season.

Count Saturday's meet between John Carroll and Mount Union as one of those "bigger feel" meets, at least from a John Carroll perspective.

It had been since 2011 that John Carroll had defeated Mount Union. That included last year, when the Blue Streaks fell in November by three points in Alliance yet went on to win the OAC Championship in February.

All that ended at the William H. Johnson, as JCU delivered a 163-128 knockout of Mount Union.

Complete Results

The score was not as indicative of how dominant John Carroll was on this day. Of Mount Union's 128 points, 29 were earned as unopposed diving events. The Purple Raiders had three divers earn 16 points on the 1-meter board and two divers earn 13 on the three board as John Carroll did not have any healthy bodies to compete in either diving competition.

John Carroll did all its damage in the pool, knowing even before the meet began that they were eseentially 29 points behind from the start.

In the opening 400 Medley Relay, the Blue Streaks rallied for what became nearly a five-second victory. Jackson Cooper, Mason Beck, Brian Hulseman and Tom Pacak teamed up to win in 3:34.46.

Mount went 1-3 in the 100 Free, but the Blue Streaks turned in a nice response in the 200 Free, as Pacak (1:48.69), Patrick Folan (1:54.45) and Dane Bozsvai (1:54.71) claimed the top three places in the race.

JCU overcame a loss in the 100 Back to 14 points in the 100 Breast. Beck placed first (1:00.81) while Evan McGory was third (1:04.49) and Egan Paul was fourth (1:05.90).

Brian Hulseman stepped up big with a victory in the 200 Fly (1:59.72) while Ramsey (21.43) and Cooper (22.12) went first and second, respectively, in the 50 Free.

Once Mount Union earned its 1-meter diving points, the score stood 84-63 in John Carroll's favor.

Ramsey kept the heat on with a win in the 100 Free (48.84), but veteran Tyler Fry answered for Mount Union in the 200 Back. 

Beck did his part for John Carroll with a win in the 200 Breast (2:16.27)

JCU led at this juncture 117-87 but knew Mount Union still had 13 points in hand for 3-meter diving coming up that kept the margin within 20 points. With Mount Union still within striking distance, some of the best efforts of the day took care of the drama in the closing races.

The first big effort came in the 500 Free. Pacak won going away at 4:52.34, but Colin Burke rallied from several length back to catch reigning OAC champion Cole Ellsworth in the final 25 yards and out-touched him, 5:02.50 to 5:02.68.

Next, Cooper (53.02) and Hulseman (53.46) threw a 1-2 punch in the 100 Fly to give JCU some breathing room, surviving 3-meter diving and a Mount Union 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 IM that pulled the Purple Raiders to within 148-126.

The final relay was the icing on the cake for the JCU side. Cooper, Ramsey, Keegan Manderfield and Pacak went 1:27.90 to win the 200 Free Relay, while teammates Ryan Singler, Chris Soules, Derek Rymers and Jack Garrow finished second in 1:31.76 to edge the Mount Union :"A" Relay but a little over a second.

The win is John Carroll's first of the year (and the first for head coach Mark Fino over Mount Union), improving the Blue Streaks' ledger to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the OAC> Mount Union slips to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in league meets.