Conway Sends Cross Country Skyward

While all UB athletes are aiming high, senior Dylan Conway is shooting for the stratosphere and beyond.

Conway is the leader of the men's cross country team and has been a major proponent in his team's successful season. However, cross country isn't the only activity he shines in. Along with lacing up to hit the trail, Conway, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, specializes in building satellites.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering – Conway's two fields of intererst – are two of UB's most rigorous programs. The programs' requirements are difficult for even the most focused UB student. But where others have struggled, Conway has flourished.

Conway currently has a 3.976 grade point average, with a 4.0 GPA from the spring semester. At the beginning of the month, Conway was named Mid-American Conference Scholar Athlete of the Week because of his superb grades and solid performance at the Paul Short Invitational.

The standout athlete has to follow a strict schedule to maintain his academic and athletic success. This requires sacrifice; while most college students are having fun on their birthdays, Conway spent his working in the lab.

"I basically have no social life," Conway said. "It's tough but it is definitely manageable, especially with running. I have to miss practice a lot of days because of class, but I wake up early to get my run in, and after class, I do my second run."

Conway doesn't regret giving up social activities, as the engineering field was something that has appealed to him ever since high school.

"We'd watch movies like Apollo 13 in high school," Conway said. "We would see engineers working on projects like that and doing space craft design and mission planning. I thought that was really cool."

Conway is part of the UB Nanosat program. This group of roughly 40 students is working on designing and building a small satellite for the United States Air Force. The Air Force will judge this design against ones from other schools, and will then pick a few of these satellites for launch.

Conway is the Attitude Determination and Attitude Control lead for Buffalo's satellite, two jobs that require him to make sure the satellite's function is coordinated properly. He cites the program as one of the reasons he came to Buffalo, since such opportunities are rare at colleges.

Conway's drive in the engineering field doesn't detract from his commitment to the cross country team. In last weekend's Penn State National Meet, Conway finished in 16th overall, Buffalo's highest placing. Currently, the Bulls rank No. 15 in the Northeast Regional rankings.

Head coach Vicki Mitchell believes Conway's leadership role is a major cause of the Bulls' success this season.

"[Being a leader] is such a critical role for a student to take because the athletes get sick of the coach asking: ‘Did you guys warm up? Did you guys cool down?'" Mitchell said. "Having your leader on the team do that, the students take notice and they listen to it."

Conway is confident that the Bulls will have a shot at winning a MAC title this year. He even believes the team has the talent to be championship contenders after he is gone.

"I think they are going to be even better next year," Conway said. "I am actually kind of jealous that I don't have another year to run."

Conway will stay in Buffalo one more year to pursue his Master's in aerospace engineering, with aspirations to eventually get a Ph.D. in the field. He will still be running track and field for the Bulls in the spring, as he redshirted his freshman year.

Conway has been the brightest of the Buffalo runners, but certainly not the only one who has enjoyed success.

The strong field of runners behind Conway consists of fellow senior John Inzina. A junior, two sophomores and two freshmen round off the rest of the top seven. The scorers place extremely close together in races, which is a big advantage when looking to compete in big races.

At the Penn State National Meet, the Bulls downed two Mid-American Conference rivals in Akron and Miami (Ohio), and one regional opponent in Marist, which bodes well for the upcoming MAC Championships and the NCAA East Regional.

The women's team is also looking to improve on last year. After strong showings in its last two meets, the team is poised to jump as many as four places from last year's 11th place finish in the upcoming MAC championships.

Led by Conway, the cross country teams expect nothing less than first place.

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