Ashley’s Fight
Family, friends and teammates rally around MSUM freshman Ashley Robben, who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in October.
MOORHEAD, Minn. — To her family, friends and teammates, Ashley Robben is kind-hearted. She is caring, but remains a fierce competitor in distance races for MSU Moorhead cross country and track & field.
Her competitive spirit has no doubt proven fruitful for the Staples, Minn., native. Robben was a state champion for Staples-Motley High School, helping her team to the state title in 2021. Her efforts guided her to Moorhead where she competed in three cross country races in the fall of 2023. This included new personal-bests in the 4k (17:46.5) at the Dragon Twilight and 6k (27:16.3) at the Jimmie Invitational.
However, shortly after that meet in Jamestown, Robben was met with a whole new competition. Robben was feeling fatigued more frequently during distance practices, which was highly unusual for the freshman, who had been running distance for years. Initially, medical professionals figured Robben was suffering from sports-induced asthma, which is relatively common for athletes.
Read Ashley’s full story from Assistant Athletic Director Nolan Schmidt at msumdragons.com.