12 — Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Johnson and Beniers lead the 

way for Michigan’s offense

Tune into a Michigan hockey 

game and chances are that Kent 

Johnson and Matty Beniers will 

catch your eye. 

The freshman forwards have 

taken the Big Ten by storm this year, 

playing on a line together. Johnson 

has been on a torrent scoring pace 

with a team-leading 16 points — 

and his 12 assists top the Big Ten. 

Beniers has been successful in his 

own right, as his 11 points indicate, 

the third-highest total on the team. 

“They’re really engaged with 

each other as far as how they want 

to play,” Michigan coach Mel 

Pearson said. “Matty’s probably 

got a little bit more of a motor and 

speed. Kent’s a little bit better 

cerebrally and (with) what he does 

with the puck. But they both read 

off each other extremely well.”

Putting the duo together paid 

off almost instantly. In their first 

collegiate hockey game against 

Arizona State, Beniers found the 

back of the net twice and Johnson 

had the primary assist on both 

goals. They’ve only gotten more 

comfortable with each other as the 

season has gone on. 

“We both know where we are, 

where we’re going to be when we’re 

going around the ice and where 

we want the puck when we’re 

shooting,” Beniers said. “We’re just 

building chemistry right now.”

They have contrasting styles on 

the ice, but their combination of 

abilities makes them tough to beat. 

Beniers stands out for his ability 

to play a 200-foot game. He’ll be 

circling around the offensive zone 

looking for a scoring opportunity 

then moments later hustling back to 

play defense. And he doesn’t let up 

the entire game. 

“He’s never taken a day off, he 

doesn’t know how to,” assistant 

coach Kris Mayotte said. “His 

motor and his compete is elite. You 

don’t coach that; it’s something 

special that he has in him.”

Johnson, meanwhile, has a 

dazzling flare to his game and 

can pull out highlight reel plays 

at a moment’s notice. Much like 

Beniers’s ability to grind out long 

possessions on both ends of the ice, 

Johnson’s flashy moves are more of 

a natural instinct than a coachable 

trait. 

“I just try to not really think 

when I play and just let my training 

and my subconscious do the work,” 

Johnson said. “If I feel like I need to 

do something between my legs to 

make the best play, then I’ll do it.”

Johnson and Beniers are both 

currently projected as top ten picks 

in the 2021 NHL draft. Having 

two top NHL prospects on a line 

together is a rare privilege, and 

the Wolverines have taken full 

advantage of it. 

Before 
the 
season, 
Pearson 

emphasized that the key to strong 

lines is to have two guys who play 

well together and then build off of 

it. It’s been a revolving door at right 

wing on the line, but it hasn’t slowed 

the duo’s production. 

“I think you’ll see them be even 

better in the second half,” Pearson 

said. “We just got to find the right 

guy to put on the right side with 

them.”

Michigan has a lot of talent on its 

roster, but if it wants to make a deep 

tournament run, it will have to push 

the right buttons to maximize that 

talent. Halfway through the season, 

it’s clear that pairing Beniers and 

Johnson together has been a step 

towards achieving just that. 

“We saw from day one, they’re 

smart players,” Pearson said. “A 

smart player needs smart players to 

play with them.”

JOSH TAUBMAN
Daily Sports Writer

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Freshman forward Matty Beniers has registered 11 points this season playing on a line with Kent Johnson.

For Ziyah Holman, stunning comeback brings moment in the spotlight

By now, you’ve probably seen 

the clip. If you haven’t, Mich-

igan freshman Ziyah Holman 

takes the baton for the final 

leg of the 4x400 relay at Sat-

urday’s Sim-

mons-Harvey 

Invitational 

from 25 

meters 

behind her 

closest com-

petitor. With-

in seconds, 

she passes an 

Ohio State 

runner. A lap later — mere steps 

from the finish line — she uses a 

final burst to bury Indiana too, 

winning the race for Michigan 

with a 51.79 second split.

“51 seconds of thrill” is 

how Anthony Belber, her high 

school coach at Georgetown 

Day School in Washington, D.C. 

describes it. On social media, 

hundreds of thousands feel the 

same way. As of Tuesday after-

noon, the video has 454,000 

views on Facebook, 204,000 on 

Twitter and 47,000 on Insta-

gram.

What hasn’t made the social 

media rounds is Holman’s 600-

meter race an hour and a half 

earlier. There’s less drama to 

that one because she won by 

four seconds with a time of 

1:29.27, topping a pair of Ohio 

State seniors. “It was a stadium 

record, a meet record and an 

NCAA lead (for the season),” 

Holman said by phone Tues-

day, with the nonchalance that 

accompanies expectation.

After all, she’s used to this. 

She’s been an anchor in the 

4x400 since she was a freshman 

in high school. The only time 

she can remember not being in 

that position was at the 2019 

Pan American U20 Champi-

onships when her team set an 

under-20 world record. So when 

she took the baton Saturday 

afternoon, she just reminded 

herself to do what she was 

taught.

“Just go test them, honestly,” 

Holman said. “Just go get them, 

see how far you can get. As the 

race keeps going, you see your-

self getting closer. Like oh my 

god, I’m actually getting closer. 

Why would I try so hard and 

not try to win?”

When she did, it was more 

familiar than anything. “All the 

time in high school, honestly,” 

Holman said when asked if 

she’s ever experienced a similar 

comeback. “That was my thing.”

Five hundred miles away, 

those were the memories that 

raced to Belber’s mind as he 

watched on a live stream. As 

Holman took the baton, he 

turned to his daughters and 

said, “If this were high school, 

she would’ve caught those girls, 

but this is too big of a gap for 

college.” 51.79 seconds later, 

Holman proved it wasn’t.

“I know how strong she is, 

but it even blew away my expec-

tations for what kind of a time 

she would be running this time 

of year,” Belber said. “She made 

the college athletes around her 

look like they were just high 

schoolers.”

For Holman, the race itself 

wasn’t as stunning as the social 

media attention it garnered. For 

47 months, every four years, 

track is a sport that often blends 

into the background. She was a 

three-time Gatorade Player of 

the Year in high school, but that 

doesn’t bring the same fame as 

it does in football and basket-

ball. So when Saturday’s video 

went viral, it brought Holman 

a level of attention she’s never 

experienced before.

“I’ve gotten so many messag-

es, it’s not even funny,” Holman 

said. “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 Satur-

day.”

Since Saturday, she estimated 

she’s gotten 500 direct messag-

es from family, friends and fans 

across Instagram and Twitter, 

with about 100 left to respond 

to. It’s not all positive, though. 

Holman said she’s gotten one or 

two racist messages, which she 

brushes off with an admirable 

absence of second thought.

“I can’t sit here cursing peo-

ple if I wanted to, because that’s 

not done with class,” Holman 

said. More than anything, that’s 

the lasting difference in her life 

from Saturday morning. With 

one stunning, come-from-be-

hind leg of a 4x400, she’s imme-

diately been thrust into the 

public eye. 

“It’s real, people are watch-

ing me now,” she added. “Any-

thing that you do has to be done 

with class, honestly, because 

you have so many people at your 

back.”

If everything goes accord-

ing to plan, Holman will have 

even more people at her back 

this summer. Before COVID-19 

postponed the 2020 Olym-

pics to this summer, she had 

received an invite to Olympic 

trials for the 400 meters. She’ll 

almost certainly be invited 

again, this time with a year of 

college training and experience 

under her belt.

“It gave me some more time 

and more confidence, honest-

ly,” Holman said. “I don’t know 

what I would’ve done last year.”

That’s the other impact of 

Saturday’s race. In 2016, the 

eighth and final American 

to qualify for the 400 meters 

posted a 51.80 in trials. If 

Holman can repeat Saturday’s 

performance, she’ll put her-

self in strong contention to do 

the same. And while athletes 

generally post faster times 

with running starts in relays, 

Holman did so on an indoor 

track — which has more turns 

— and with tired legs from 

her previous accolades that 

day.

If she does qualify for the 

Olympics, she’ll have reached 

her ultimate goal. But for now, 

Saturday’s meet — the first of 

her college career — is a pretty 

good place to start.

“I had no idea what was 

gonna happen,” Holman 

said. “I just came out there 

to compete. I have goals, but 

I definitely didn’t expect a 

51.7 split. That was crazy. I 

couldn’t believe that.”

On social media, neither 

could hundreds of thousands of 

new fans.

Mackie can be reached at 

tmackie@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @theo_mackie.

THEO
MACKIE

ALEC COHEN/Daily

In her first collegiate meet, Ziyah Holman ran 1:29.27 in the 600-meter and anchored the 4x400 relay.

