John Carroll head coach Mark Fino preaches how every swim is important in a dual meet.

Saturday's meet at the William H. Johnson Natatorium between John Carroll and Gannon proved that out, as the resolution of matters came down to the last relay, in which the Golden Knights prevailed to pull out a 145-139 win.

Complete Results

Gannon, an NCAA Division II opponent from Erie, Pa., led by a 134-133 score entering the final race, and claimed the 11 first place points for winning the 200 Free Relay by 1.10 seconds (1:42.81). JCU's "A" relay of Megan Hawk, Shelbi Shearer, Hope Scherger and Maddie Dolce finished second (1:43.91) and the JCU "B relay of Tori Vale, Marisa Crisci, Felice Ferrante and Anne Crowley took third (1:45.46).

The Golden Knights came out swinging with wins in the 200 Medley Relay, 1000 Free and 200 Free, negating some excellent swims by Sam Needham, who placed second in the 1000 race (12:03.54), and Dolce in the 200, whose time of 2:01.93 was just .12 off the winning mark. 

It took a 1-2 punch in the 100 Back to get things rolling for the Blue Streaks. Carly Adams won the race in 1:00.96, while Spenser Kale took second in 1:03.59.

Carmen Ferrante followed with a win in the 100 Breast (1:10.02,) edging Gannon's Brynn Driscoll (1:10.58) and her own teammate Jessica Morrow (1:10.86) in a fantastic finish.

Runner-up finishes by Scherger in the 200 Fly (2:21.34), Ashley Creasap in 1-meter diving (177.20). Shearer in the 100 Free (56.89) and Felice Ferrante in the 200 Back (2:20.51) kept the meet close before Gwyn Ledrick got JCU back in the win column by claiming first in the 200 Breast (2:32.61) to pull JCU within ten points at 96-86.

After Gannon sewed up wins in the 500 Free and 100 Fly, Creasap came up big with a win in 3-meter diving that made the score 127-121 in favor of the Golden Knights.

Carmen Ferrante led the charge in the 200 IM that pulled the Blue Streaks to within a single point (2:16.79), setting up the winner-take-all final race.

Gannon improves to 4-3 in dual meets with the win, while John Carroll drops to 3-2.