Seeded 22nd and not with the original line-up that posted the season's best time, there was not much being buzz generated by the John Carroll contingent for team points to be earned by the Men's 200 Medley Relay on the opening day of the 2019 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.

After all, there were better opportunities in other relays later in the meet.

Not only did the Blue Streaks earn the team points, but they had to dig very deep to claim them.

Results: Day One Finals  /   Day One Preliminaries   /  Day One Team Scores

The craziness began when John Carroll, swimming in lane eight of the fourth and final heat, posted a time of 1:31.96 in the preliminary session Wednesday morning. The time was about a full second off the best posted time of the year at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships in February, but was still good for a tie for 17th place.

But then it was announced that a team had been disqualified from the third heat, meaning John Carroll and the United States Merchant Marine Academy, who also had swam a 1:31.96, would need to swim off for the right to swim in the national consolation finals on Wednesday night.

And they would have a half hour to recover from the preliminary swim.

To their credit, the John Carroll team of Forrest Campbell (back), Adam Lenz (breast), Jackson Cooper (fly) and Matt Ramsey (free) got back in the water at 1:08 p.m., and proceeded to win the swim off with a time of 1:31.56 (0.40 of a second faster than they had gone 30 minutes prior) to edge the USMMA which posted the exact same time of 1:31.96 from the previous swim.

With their spot booked in the national consolation final, the Blue Streaks came back that night and posted their best time of the entire day -- 1:31.46 -- and managed to beat Albion to claim 15th place overall. By virtue of a top 16 finish, Campbell, Lenz, Cooper and Ramsey earned honorable mention Division III All-America status. They are the first men's swimming All-Americans from John Carroll since Eric Richmond in 2002.

The Blue Streaks also produced their first All-American relay since Joe Turi, Rich Farkas, Jim Petkunas and Eric Rapp were honorable mention in both the 200 and 400 medley relay at the 1993 Division III Championships. 

Bryan Alitto, Steve Brown, Paul Hulseman and Andy Majeske remain the only relay in school history to earn first team All-American honors with a seventh-place showing in the 800 Free Relay at the 1981 national tournament.

Earlier in the day, Ramsey competed as an individual and placed in a tie for 30th out of 56 swimmers in the Men's 50 Free. He posted a time of 20.82. Ramsey set the school record with his 20.47 at the OAC championships.

JCU stands in 20th place out of 56 teams following the first of four days of competition.