I don 't think you got my point. Whether you call it a crash or a collision is irrelevant, rather it is whether you can say "great work" preceded it... certainly they performed well afterwards, and were very, very, lucky. But for a microsecond longer reaction time and a few feet inboard of the collision point the outcome would have been very different and no amount of "great work" after the fact would have been able to change it.
I believe both aircraft had two pairs of eyes, one in each plane being those of an instructor pilot, and they were in a known practice area where "see and avoid" is paramount, so you'll have to pardon me if I do not consider two planes flying into each other in those circumstances to be "great work".