Colorado State University Athletics
Getting to know CSU's Wallis, Gohl
9/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 22, 2008
By Josh Kruger
Athletic Media Relations
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – With the men’s and women’s cross country teams having another break in between races, CSURams.com had the chance to sit down with two top performers on the teams.
Both Daniel Wallis and Allison Gohl are off to great starts this season. At the Sept. 13 CSU Classic, Wallis finished as the top runner for the men’s team while Gohl finished as the second fastest CSU female for the second week in a row.
Daniel Wallis
Wallis, 20, is a sophomore from Wellington, New Zealand, who transferred to CSU this year after spending last year at Western State in Gunnison, Colo. After sitting out the Wyoming Invitational, Wallis announced his arrival on the CSU scene with a third-place finish at the CSU Classic in a time of 21 minutes, 12.4 seconds as the men’s team won the overall race.
On what brought him to Colorado from New Zealand
“There’s a whole lot of reasons actually. The U.S. offers athletic scholarships, and it’s such a good opportunity and quite hard to turn down if you get the chance to come over and come and compete. You get trips paid for, you get gear paid for, and also world experience at the same time. That’s what brought me over, the chance to get an education and travel.”
On whether his family is still in New Zealand
“Actually, my parents live in Western Australia. So I’ve got family in New Zealand and family in Australia, so I split between both.”
On how he likes being over here
“I especially enjoy Fort Collins. Last year was different for me because, coming from a place where I hadn’t even really seen snow before to then going to Gunnison was pretty overwhelming. But I’m really enjoying Fort Collins and I really like CSU. It’s really cool being over here.”
On some other big differences between the two countries
“Well, basically spin New Zealand upside down and kick it around a few times, that’s America (laughing). It’s a completely different world here. The culture is completely different. There are so many rules in America for certain things whereas New Zealand is very informal, very casual, very laid-back. I wanted a new experience and I got it, that’s for sure.”
On how he felt the CSU Classic went, both individually and as a team
“I think for the team, most importantly, it was really good. I’ve only been here a short time, but I know how much it means to us to run well. I ran bloody hard, but I kind of ran a race that I don’t usually run. I was at the front and made surges and tried to drop some guys, and that kind of took it out of me in the last mile. But overall I was pretty happy with how I ran. It was good, it wasn’t great. Great racing comes later on.”
On how he feels the team is doing so far this season
“There were a lot of expectations coming into the season because last year didn’t go too well for the guys, both from what I saw and from what I’ve been told. I think so far things are going really, really well. Day-to-day it’s amazing.”
On some personal goals for the season
“I’m coming into a new conference, a new region, a new division even. So, for me, I want the team to finish in the top two in the conference and for us to finish in the top six at the regionals to get a chance to go to the nationals. Individually, I’d like to be all-conference, and I’d like to be in the top 20 in Oregon in a couple of weeks. I’d like to stay consistent. Last year, I couldn’t even get through the season. It was my first year at altitude, my first year in the cold, I couldn’t even last the year. So for me to get through the season healthy would be great.”
On some early thoughts on the Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Ore., on Oct. 4
“I’ve never been there, but from what I’ve been told the course is very fast and very flat. Individually I want to run a fast time. If I can run around 24 minutes for an 8K, that’d be great. For the team, last year they finished 11th, so I think if we can have three or four guys all around the top 20, I think we can finish where we want.”
On a quirky fact that fans may not know about him
“Well there’s a lot that people don’t know about me being from the other side of the world (laughing). I once spent 23 hours camping out for a U2 concert in New Zealand. Out of 60,000 people, I was the second one in line. So I got to be right at the front. It was a phenomenal concert. It was at an outdoor stadium and the first time they had been there in something like 20 years and probably the last time. I camped out 19 hours for the tickets and then 23 hours to make sure that I was at the front. I was with a mate of mine for the whole time. It was a really cool experience!”
Allison Gohl
Gohl, 19, is a sophomore coming off a very successful season last year. Having burst onto the scene as part of the conference and regional winning women’s team, she was awarded the MWC Freshman of the Year award and earned all-MWC academic honors. This season, she has continued to be successful finishing third overall at both of the first two races of the year.
On her reaction to the team being ranked 14th in the nation in the preseason Division I polls
“It’s exciting for sure. It kind of sparks our motivation for the season. Coach always tells us that it’s just a ranking, so it’s good to have to shoot for, and even shoot over, but it’s definitely exciting. It’s a different approach than last season as now we kind of have a target on our backs, but it’s definitely a big motivator.”
On racing in front of their home fans at the CSU Classic and coming out with the overall win
“That was just really great. It’s always a fun meet having the whole Fort Collins community and our parents there cheering us on, it was really cool. I think it was also a great confidence booster for our team to run together out there and come in so close. It gives us a lot of encouragement from each other that we can take into the bigger part of our season where we’re going to face deeper competition.”
On how good the team is looking heading into the heart of the season schedule after going two-for-two to start the year
“It’s exciting. The two meets we went to are definitely on a different level than the meets we will be going to. But it’s still a good kind of rust-buster and good for us to get a chance to see how our team is going to race together, and I think we learned a lot from those races that we can take into Oregon and Pre-Nationals and the other upcoming races.”
On the two weeks of practice leading up to the Dellinger Invitational on Oct. 4
“I think that we really want to focus on running together because we’re definitely stronger together than we will be apart. So going into these next practices, we’re going to try and focus on doing those intervals as a team and just running with each other and getting excited for the race that’s coming up.”
On whether she considers herself a leader on a team that is so young
“I think I do. I’m blessed to be in that position. It’s a really neat opportunity. I just hope that I can be an encouragement to the girls on my team, both in the way that I race and in the way that I talk to them and encourage them.”
On who else she considers to be leaders of the team
“I think that definitely getting Kirsten (Anthony) back and running is really awesome. This is her fifth year, so she has the most experience out of all of us. Marissa (Saunders) also has a lot of experience and she’s definitely our encourager out there. Ellie (Rastall) racing so well is awesome for her to be winning races. I think we all really respect that.”
On her individual goals for the season
“Individually, I’d just like to contribute to the team the best that I can and to be the best runner I can be for this team. More specifically, I guess go out there and try to be first-team all-conference and all-region.”
On a fact about her that many fans may not know
“My dad is a big cyclist. This summer, he and I met a girl on my floor who does a lot of that. We all went out and did the Courage Classic, which is three days of bike-riding and something like 160 miles. It’s done to raise money for the children’s hospital. It was just really good being in the mountains and around such inspirational people.”