Lincoln track star tries his hand at football

Lincoln kicker Michael Ashley practices kicking this week with holder Jon Manning. Ashley, a native of Jamaica, is in his first year with the Lincoln football team.
Lincoln kicker Michael Ashley practices kicking this week with holder Jon Manning. Ashley, a native of Jamaica, is in his first year with the Lincoln football team.

Michael Ashley is a Jamaican athlete at Lincoln University.

That's not out of the norm, considering the Blue Tigers' highly successful track and field program, of which Ashley is a member, recruits heavily in Jamaica.

The surprising part? Ashley is also the kicker for the Lincoln football team.

Ashley, a native of St. Catherine, Jamaica, came to Lincoln for the 2011-12 school year. As a sprinter on the men's track team, he earned All-American honors as part of the Blue Tigers' 4x400-meter relay team, which helped Lincoln end 2012 as the NCAA Division II national runner-up. Ashley also led the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.34 seconds.

The junior is familiar with football, just not the American kind.