Listen to Dan Lowry break down his first Penn Relays performance 2 years ago and that would have to be your response.

"Immediately after getting the baton, I ran into someone and fell over a little to the side," Lowry said. "Then I tripped over that little metal strip [about 2 inches high; it separates one part of the track from another] and stumbled."

Pause. "Then I went out too fast."

Pause again. "Then I couldn't finish."

His overall thought from that '06 outing?

"I ran an atrociously bad race," Lowry said, smiling.

Lowry, who lives in Plymouth Meeting and is bound for Brown, is a senior at La Salle High. Finally, he can bank a good Penn Relays memory.

(2007 doesn't count; it was pouring and no one thrived.)

With Lowry tying his personal best with a 1,600-meter split of 4 minutes, 12.2 seconds, first accomplished in this past winter's state indoor meet, the Explorers placed second in the distance medley relay at 10:16.54.

The quartet's lone junior, Pat Donnelly, ran 3:14.7 for the 1,200 leg. The other members, both seniors, were Anthony Kent (52.4 for 400) and Brian Ledder (1:57.2 for 800).

Catholic League rival Archbishop Ryan was fifth in 10:19.35 thanks to junior Phil Celona, senior Kevin Myslinski, junior Kieran Hennessy and senior Sean Mallon. That the gold medal went to Germantown Friends (10:11.54) did not cause tears to well up in Lowry's eyes.

"I'm happy with the job we did," he said. "This race is so competitive. I'm just glad we made it here in the first place . . . Plus, this is my first good showing.'

Though Lowry downplayed his contribution, he was quite the whirlwind. La Salle was next to last when he got the baton, but then he unfurled an anchor leg that was 2 seconds better than anyone else's.

"I didn't think any of us really struggled," Lowry said. "I thought we all ran about what we wanted to.

"When I first got the baton, I couldn't go crazy. There was too much ground to cover. Your approach has to be get your team into the race while still having enough to finish.

"At a certain point, I just decided to go for second place. Really, when the guy from Germantown Friends [Max Kaulbach] started his kick with maybe 600 or 400 meters left, I was still trying to catch the second group."

At Brown, Lowry is unsure what his focus will be.

"Um, maybe the mile," he said. "At La Salle I do whatever I'm told. I just fill in where needed."

Keeping track

Swenson's girls placed sixth (48.00 seconds) in the 4x100 relay consolation for small schools . . . Father Judge's Jason Flanagan took 11th in the javelin at 183-9 . . . In the shot put, Monsignor Bonner's Sean Wilks (50-9) and Malvern Prep's Andrew Finley (49-5 1/4) were 19th and 20th, respectively. *