Gazette-Times reporter

It’s not hyperbole or cliche to say that Casey Masterson really does let her feet do the talking for her.

Oregon State’s talented sophomore cross country runner avoids the spotlight and emphasizes team accomplishments over individual attention to the extent that she graciously declines interview requests, even when the biggest meet of the season to date will be held near her hometown.

The Eugene native and Sheldon High graduate is OSU’s No. 2 runner heading into Friday’s Pacific-10 Conference Championships, to be contested at 2:25 p.m. on a 6,000-meter course at the Springfield Country Club.

She’s also considered to be the woman who validated the Beavers’ program to recruits like herself that were being pursued by programs with far more history and tradition that OSU’s, which was brought out of mothballs in 2004 after a 17-year hiatus.

Masterson was a three-time state cross country/track champion at Sheldon. She had a 4.0 grade-point average and was being courted by many colleges after a 12th-place finish at a Foot Locker regional race in California.

“She was just a few strides away” from advancing to the national Foot Locker meet in San Diego, OSU coach Kelly Sullivan said. “That really put her on the radar, every school in the country began recruiting her.”

She made official visits to five schools and eventually narrowed her choices to OSU, Virginia and Oregon, or skipping intercollegiate competition altogether and running for the Eugene Health and Performance Foundation, an Olympic development program run by former Athletics West coach Dick Brown.

Sullivan said he thought he’d get the obligatory, “Thanks, but no thanks” phone call when letter of intent day arrived.

“She never took an official visit here, just drove up twice to visit,” Sullivan said. ‘OSU wasn’t on her list. She wasn’t in bed at night going, ‘Oh my gosh, I sure hope I can run at Oregon State someday.’

“If I had been a betting man, I’d have bet we’d make a great impression and she’d like what we have to offer, but in the end we wouldn’t be the place she’d go.”

Instead of a polite rebuff, however, Sullivan got an unexpected double dose of good news when Masterson and Jennifer Macias of Hermiston committed on the same day and announced their decisions on a conference call.

“They said, ‘Let’s do this together,’ ” and instantly changed the face of the program.

“Casey has validated that we could go out and get someone of her ability and potential to overlook everything else and really take a chance on a program that hadn’t established itself,” Sullivan said. “She and Sylvia Veal give us a tremendous 1-2 punch.”

Masterson has raced several times previously in her hometown and hasn’t always enjoyed the experience.

“There’s pressure on her when she runs there,” Sullivcan said. “Everybody in Eugene knows her and she’s almost been distracted,” by so many people asking for a moment her time.

“She gets so much attention. But I think she’ll be excited and hopefully (Friday) won’t be any different than any other meet for her.”

Veal, Masterson and Macias placed 32nd, 34th and 35th at last year’s Pac-10 meet and helped the Beavers take seventh, their best performance since the program was reinstated. They hope to move up even higher this season and should battle Washington State, California and Arizona for fifth place.

OSU’s top runners haven’t competed since early October as part of the tapering process so they should be rested and ready for the final precursor to the Nov. 15 NCAA West Regional.

“Eight of the 10 women we’re going to run are Oregon high school kids, so there’s no way we’re going to downplay this meet; it’s going to be a big race,” Sullivan said.

“We’re as ready and prepared as any team we’ve had to this point and as prepared as any team I’ve had over the years.”

PAC-10 MEET AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Pacific-10 Conference women’s cross country championships

WHEN: 2:25 p.m. on Friday

WHERE: Springfield Country Club

COURSE: 6,000 meters on grass, with short sections on service roads.

TV: Comcast Sports Network (37), 6 p.m.

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS: Stanford has won the past 13 team championships. Cardinal senior Arianna Lambie was the individual champion for the third year in a row.

RANKED TEAMS: Washington (1), Oregon (2), Arizona State (15), Stanford (18).

OSU ENTRANTS (2007 finish in parenthesis): Sylvia Veal (32), Casey Masterson (34), Hayley Oveson (63), Michelle Childs, Jennifer Macias (35), Lorene Young, Holly Thompson (67), Hannah Soza-Hodgkinson, Rebecca Mishler and Marsha Lampi or Abby Chesimet (69).

NOTES: The Beavers were seventh at the 2007 Pac-10 meet at Trysting Tree. -. OSU has already qualified for the NCAA West Regional Championships, at Stanford on Nov. 15, and is ranked sixth in the NCAA West Region. The top two finishers at nine NCAA regional meets, and 13 at-large selections, advance to the NCAA Championships, Nov. 24 in Terre Haute, Ind. -. The 2009 Pac-10 meet will be hosted by USC.