Gfeller, Green named Grizzly Cup winners
4/22/2024 8:55:00 PM | General, Men's Track and Field, Women's Basketball
Her sport of choice is played on a court measuring 94 feet. His preferred race goes just 110 meters from starting blocks to finish line, done in less than 15 seconds, 14 on his best days. But both of this year's Grizzly Cup winners have played the long game and have been rewarded for it.
Carmen Gfeller, of Colfax, Wash., and Jaydon Green, of Boise, Idaho, arrived at the University of Montana in the fall of 2018. Neither would have guessed their final year of competition would be 2024, six years later, but nobody saw Covid coming down the road either.
For all the disruption the pandemic caused, it afforded an opportunity for those athletes who could take advantage of one more year and who were wise enough to know this was a time in life – competing for the (Lady) Griz – that could never be returned to once it was given up.
She competed a year, redshirted the next, then played four straight seasons of All-Big Sky Conference basketball, all while suiting up for three head coaches and ignoring the outside voices that told her it's not worth it. Wouldn't it just be easier at another school, in another program?
She stuck with it, endured the wear and tear of playing in a program-record 138 games and probably five times as many practices, sessions that could come in the early morning or late at night, none of them taking place with the support the Lady Griz get on game day, a grinder's story.
It was an investment unlike any other in Montana women's basketball history.
As the games piled up, the points did as well, 1,622 of them, the fourth most in program history, Ms. Consistency totaling 91 games in her career with 10 or more points, averaging between 13.4 and 14.3 in each of her last four seasons.
The game tipped off, the game came to an end, and Carmen had her points.
Four times Academic All-Big Sky Conference, twice an Academic All-District selection, she was around long enough to get her degree in English education, to student teach, to work toward a master's degree in public administration and decide that maybe coaching was what she might want to do long term.
Basketball had become her. If she had her way, it will be her for as long as possible.
Gfeller, at least as a Lady Griz, took her final shot last month, just as Green thought he had cleared his last hurdle on a track in Sacramento last spring. He had checked off every box that he could have imagined back in 2018, maybe even more than he could have dreamed of.
The 60-meter hurdles school record? Check. The 110-meter hurdles school record? Check. A trip to NCAA regionals? Check.
The final two boxes that remained were crossed off on a blustery day in Greeley last May at the Big Sky Championships. Green ran his first career sub-14-second time, achieving a lifelong goal and becoming a Big Sky champion in the process. Check and check.
He had authored what would be considered by most to be a storybook ending to an athletic career. Green could have left a champion and a two-event school record holder, an NCAA qualifier, the greatest male Grizzly to ever clear a hurdle.
But that's not who Jaydon Green is. The competitor in him couldn't just hang it up, not when the opportunity to continue beckoned like a temptress. He had his health, he had his speed, and he had the choice and chance to do it all again, one more time.
His isn't a story of unfinished business. Rather, like Gfeller also came to realize, it's one of taking every moment presented and making the most of it. And cherishing it, never taking it for granted. They were on borrowed time, playing with house money, and they knew it.
It's why at the end of every race he can be seen kneeling to the track and kissing its pebbly surface. It's his way of saying thank you, to the sport, to the Grizzly program, to another race.
Green, like Gfeller did as January turned to February, then to March, the number of her remaining games dwindling, countable on two hands, then one, finally no fingers left to hold up, is now doing the same thing, the number of races he has left in his career diving down, deep into the single digits.
It's what they've all done, all the Grizzly Cup winners since it was first awarded more than 100 years ago, in 1921. They arrived with dreams, got to work and finally looked up, not understanding how four or five years could have possibly passed by so quickly. And couldn't they have just one more? Please?
Gfeller and Green were both gifted that extra year, a reward for putting up with all things Covid. And by remaining in maroon for one more, by putting their lives and futures on hold to be Grizzlies for one more go, it was this year's Grizzly Cup winners who gifted all of us.
Carmen Gfeller, of Colfax, Wash., and Jaydon Green, of Boise, Idaho, arrived at the University of Montana in the fall of 2018. Neither would have guessed their final year of competition would be 2024, six years later, but nobody saw Covid coming down the road either.
For all the disruption the pandemic caused, it afforded an opportunity for those athletes who could take advantage of one more year and who were wise enough to know this was a time in life – competing for the (Lady) Griz – that could never be returned to once it was given up.
She competed a year, redshirted the next, then played four straight seasons of All-Big Sky Conference basketball, all while suiting up for three head coaches and ignoring the outside voices that told her it's not worth it. Wouldn't it just be easier at another school, in another program?
She stuck with it, endured the wear and tear of playing in a program-record 138 games and probably five times as many practices, sessions that could come in the early morning or late at night, none of them taking place with the support the Lady Griz get on game day, a grinder's story.
It was an investment unlike any other in Montana women's basketball history.
As the games piled up, the points did as well, 1,622 of them, the fourth most in program history, Ms. Consistency totaling 91 games in her career with 10 or more points, averaging between 13.4 and 14.3 in each of her last four seasons.
The game tipped off, the game came to an end, and Carmen had her points.
Four times Academic All-Big Sky Conference, twice an Academic All-District selection, she was around long enough to get her degree in English education, to student teach, to work toward a master's degree in public administration and decide that maybe coaching was what she might want to do long term.
Basketball had become her. If she had her way, it will be her for as long as possible.
Gfeller, at least as a Lady Griz, took her final shot last month, just as Green thought he had cleared his last hurdle on a track in Sacramento last spring. He had checked off every box that he could have imagined back in 2018, maybe even more than he could have dreamed of.
The 60-meter hurdles school record? Check. The 110-meter hurdles school record? Check. A trip to NCAA regionals? Check.
The final two boxes that remained were crossed off on a blustery day in Greeley last May at the Big Sky Championships. Green ran his first career sub-14-second time, achieving a lifelong goal and becoming a Big Sky champion in the process. Check and check.
He had authored what would be considered by most to be a storybook ending to an athletic career. Green could have left a champion and a two-event school record holder, an NCAA qualifier, the greatest male Grizzly to ever clear a hurdle.
But that's not who Jaydon Green is. The competitor in him couldn't just hang it up, not when the opportunity to continue beckoned like a temptress. He had his health, he had his speed, and he had the choice and chance to do it all again, one more time.
His isn't a story of unfinished business. Rather, like Gfeller also came to realize, it's one of taking every moment presented and making the most of it. And cherishing it, never taking it for granted. They were on borrowed time, playing with house money, and they knew it.
It's why at the end of every race he can be seen kneeling to the track and kissing its pebbly surface. It's his way of saying thank you, to the sport, to the Grizzly program, to another race.
Green, like Gfeller did as January turned to February, then to March, the number of her remaining games dwindling, countable on two hands, then one, finally no fingers left to hold up, is now doing the same thing, the number of races he has left in his career diving down, deep into the single digits.
It's what they've all done, all the Grizzly Cup winners since it was first awarded more than 100 years ago, in 1921. They arrived with dreams, got to work and finally looked up, not understanding how four or five years could have possibly passed by so quickly. And couldn't they have just one more? Please?
Gfeller and Green were both gifted that extra year, a reward for putting up with all things Covid. And by remaining in maroon for one more, by putting their lives and futures on hold to be Grizzlies for one more go, it was this year's Grizzly Cup winners who gifted all of us.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
Sprints
/ Men's Track and Field2025 Brawl of the Wild Trailer
Friday, November 21
Griz Football weekly press conference 11-17-25
Monday, November 17
Montana vs Portland State Highlights
Monday, November 17
2025 Griz Volleyball Senior Feature
Sunday, November 16
