The Seven-Minute Struggle

A wrestling match lasts seven minutes, but facing adversity is part of a lifetime.

Story by Micaela Gerhardt | Photos by Libby Leonard ’26 | March 25, 2025

Enter the McCormick Wrestling Room and it’s the heat you’ll feel first — a thick humidity hanging in the air. On the mat, NDSU wrestlers are paired off and running drills, sweating it out, and preparing for a tense upcoming dual against the highly favored, No. 10 nationally ranked University of Minnesota.

The Bison are a young team, and for one wrestler, Drew Blackburn-Forst ’27, the dual includes a bout against Olympic gold medalist, three-time All-American, and two-time NCAA Division I champion Gable Steveson — the No. 1 wrestler nationally in his 285-pound weight class.

“The No. 1 heavyweight in the country,” NDSU wrestling head coach Obenson (Obe) Blanc emphasized. “I’ve got a sophomore that’s got to deal with that mentally.”

It’s a burden or an opportunity — depending upon how you frame it. The match will be a struggle, but that’s what wrestling is, Obe says: the ability to face adversity. Every odd may be stacked against you, but you need to show up with a mindset that puts you in the position to win.

“There’s training for conditioning, there’s training for how to eat properly, but there’s not a ton of training on how to deal with, ‘Hey, I’m wrestling the best guy in the world, and I don’t believe I have a shot … How do I process that?’” Obe said. “You need someone to help you understand it doesn’t matter if you’re wrestling the best guy in the world or the very worst. Your job is to focus on yourself and on the processes that lead to the win … [but] seven minutes feels like a lifetime trying to do that.”

Obe’s coaching philosophy is rooted in a quiet confidence in his athletes and their ability to persevere through the fight, whether it’s on the mat or off.

“It’s supposed to be hard,” is the mantra Obe repeats in the practice room as he runs the team through a leg attack defense drill, an area where they’ve struggled in recent bouts. “It’s supposed to be hard.”

His voice is muffled by a whirring fan that does little to displace the heat, but the words carry through.

Around him, the wrestlers find their stance and lock in. They are students, too. But here, in this room, for these two hours, their most urgent priority — regardless of any personal struggles, homework, or upcoming exams — is how to defeat the opponent standing before them.

There is nothing to hide behind, and everything to win or lose.

On the night of the dual, Michael ’10, ’12 and Madison ’14 Quamme find their usual mat-side seats under the fluorescent lights of the Scheels Center. When they arrive, the stands are empty, but by 6 p.m. NDSU wrestling will have broken a record with 1,529 fans in attendance.

“You’ll see us front and center, and I’m obnoxious,” Michael joked about his expressive cheering style. “I’m well aware of that, but I always try to create a home advantage.”

The Quammes are season ticket holders, and though Michael works in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he commutes back to Fargo often. Being an active part of the wrestling and greater NDSU communities is a big reason he and Madison are committed to staying engaged with Fargo.

“The people that we’ve met from going to school here, that we’ve met being involved here, it’s home to us,” Michael, who was part of the wrestling team during NDSU’s transition to Division I athletics, said. “We want to be there [at the matches] to support something we care about.”

“There have been many universities that have cut their wrestling programs because it’s not a big moneymaker,” Madison added. “We feel very strongly that those are the types of things that if you support it, you need to pour into it, too.”

In 2024, Michael, Madison, former teammates, and friends established the Geoff Martin Wrestling Endowment to provide NDSU wrestlers with greater access to mental and performance health resources. The endowment is named in honor of Michael’s late friend and former Bison wrestling teammate, Geoff Martin ’14, who struggled with mental health but always maintained his sense of humor and love for the sport.

“We all know college is hard. Sports are hard. College and sports are really hard,” Michael said. “And then you do get into the male aspect of it and the wrestling aspect of it where you’re supposed to be able to just outwork whatever problems you have — it doesn’t have to be that way. The more resources you have to do the best you can, the better.”

The Geoff Martin Wrestling Endowment offers NDSU wrestling coaches the flexibility to use funds for mental and performance health according to team needs. It’s part of a larger effort across all NDSU athletic departments to enhance the mental health resources available for student-athletes.

DARING GREATLY: An excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizen in a Republic” hangs on the wrestling practice room wall, a reminder that “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …”

The support comes during a critical period of stabilizing and rebuilding for the NDSU wrestling team. Obe, who served four previous seasons at NDSU, was promoted to head coach in May 2023. He’s only the fourth head coach in the history of the wrestling program, following in the footsteps of long-tenured coaches including the late Bucky Maughan ’68, who led the Bison for 47 seasons.

Obe and his coaching staff, who were hired between 2023 and 2024, are cultivating a team comprised of many freshmen, redshirt freshmen, and transfer students. While they certainly want to win, Obe says his overarching goal as a coach is more about fostering good husbands, fathers, and community members. Mental resilience is a key component for fulfillment and success, both on an individual level and as a team.

“Life’s not going to get easier for you because you want it to. You have to get better. You have to get tougher. You have to grow,” Obe tells his wrestlers. “For me, it’s like, how do I teach these kids to have a spirit of perseverance and continue to grind through the issue to come out on the other side? Don’t seek easy. Seek to get better.”

In its dual against the University of Minnesota, NDSU wrestling turns up scoreless — the first time since 2009, and only the fourth time in its Division I era. When Drew Blackburn-Forst runs into the arena for the final heavyweight matchup against Gable Steveson, the scoreboard is 0-34, and the crowd is eager to see what the famous Gopher adversary has up his sleeve.

But it’s Drew, with his blond mullet, focused gaze, and high energy, that is the most striking. You can’t look past his courage — a sophomore up against a 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist, running into the packed arena, head held high. To be on the mat at all is heroic.

The bout ends in under two minutes, but as it turns out, that can feel like a lifetime too. And the team will have to grapple with this loss and come back prepared to focus on the next practice, the next match, the next opportunity to earn the right to win.

“It’s about the fight and effort we bring,” Obe said.

The feeling lingering in the Scheels Center after the meet is one of acceptance, but there’s an energy in the air too, the result of an outpouring of fans filling the stadium seats; of NDSU wrestling alumni who gathered and were honored during the meet; of the legacy and memory of the late Bucky Maughan, whose photo is projected on the jumbotron; of young wrestling club kids who look to the collegiate wrestlers as their idols, the people they want to be someday.

Those who grow up and choose to be Bison will become part of a tradition of excellence that pertains even more to their character than it does the number on the scoreboard. Obe and his staff, alumni and donors like Michael and Madison, legacy team members like Bucky and Geoff, the greater NDSU community, the student-athletes themselves — all are making sure of it.