This is how you make a debut.
Michigan freshman Ziyah Holman raced past her competition on Saturday in the 4×400 relay in her first-ever college meet and is now a viral sensation.
Holman made up a supposed-to-be-insurmountable four-second deficit with a 51.79 split at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational.
“Just go test them, honestly,” Holman told Michigan Daily. “Just go get them, see how far you can get. As the race keeps going, you see yourself getting closer. Like oh my god, I’m actually getting closer. Why would I try so hard and not try to win?”
Holman, according to the Wolverines website, was one of the most decorated hight school track & field athletes in the country before arriving at Ann Arbor. While the scene of her blitzing past the competition has stunned at least 3.7 million viewers (on Twitter alone), Holman was not particularly surprised.
“All the time in high school, honestly,” Holman, a Washington D.C. native, said when Michigan Daily asked about accomplishing such a comeback before.
“That was my thing.”
In a far less dramatic race, Holman also crushed the competition in the 600-meter distance with a time of 1:29.27 — four seconds better than the nearest challenger. But the 4×400 comeback is what earned her overwhelming national attention.
“I’ve gotten so many messages, it’s not even funny,” Holman told the college paper. “I feel so bad because I’m still replying — trying to reply — to everyone, but honestly it’s pretty impossible. I’m still replying to stuff from Saturday.”