Bluegrass 10,000: Ex-Cat scores 3rd women’s division win; Dayton runner takes men’s title

Cameron Drummond
·4 min read

A former Kentucky Wildcat secured her third Bluegrass 10,000 women’s division win, while a current runner at the University of Dayton won the men’s and overall titles in Lexington’s annual Fourth of July race, which featured more than 1,600 in-person competitors.

Katy Kunc ⁠— who won last year’s race in the women’s division with a course-record time ⁠— won again in 2022 with a time of 35 minutes and 31 seconds.

Kunc was a first-team All-American in cross country and an SEC champion in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase while at UK in 2017. That marked UK’s first SEC championship in the event.

Kunc has now won the Bluegrass 10K in 2018, 2021 and 2022, and her time was good for 16th overall among all runners on Monday.

Katy Kunc crosses the line as the first female finisher of the Bluegrass 10,000. The former University of Kentucky runner has won the women’s division three times.
Katy Kunc crosses the line as the first female finisher of the Bluegrass 10,000. The former University of Kentucky runner has won the women’s division three times.

Men’s winner

Sam Duncan, a rising junior cross country runner at Dayton, finished the 10K race in a winning time of 31 minutes and 17 seconds.

From Lebanon, Ohio, Duncan received all-star honors as a high school senior. At an NCAA Regional meet in November, Duncan ran a 10K in 32 minutes and 32 seconds.

Both Duncan and Kunc received a $500 prize for winning their respective divisions.

Overall winner Sam Duncan crosses the line in the Bluegrass 10,000. Duncan, who is from Ohio, runs cross country at the University of Dayton.
Overall winner Sam Duncan crosses the line in the Bluegrass 10,000. Duncan, who is from Ohio, runs cross country at the University of Dayton.

Race information

Aerelle Jones won the hand chair division with a time of 30 minutes and 53 seconds.

David Hartsek won the hand cycle division in 32 minutes and 30 seconds.

According to the online race results, there were 1,658 in-person runners who recorded a time in Monday’s race.

There were an additional 15 virtual race participants and 186 “fun run” participants in the 1-mile race.

The start and finish line for this year’s race was near the intersection of Main Street and North Limestone Street in downtown Lexington.

This year’s race map featured turns from Main Street to East Short Street, from East Short Street to North Limestone, onto Pleasant Stone and Corral streets, from Elm Tree Lane back to East Short and onto Midland Avenue and then a lengthy loop on Main Street and Richmond Road to close the race.

The awards ceremony following the race took place at the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza.

Participants run down Midland Avenue during the Bluegrass 10,000.
Participants run down Midland Avenue during the Bluegrass 10,000.

Longtime Bluegrass 10K runners continue race

This year marked the 46th edition of the Bluegrass 10K, and several runners have been longtime race participants.

Mary Witt Wilson has run in each edition of the Bluegrass 10K, and was the winner in the women’s division in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1982.

Wilson told the Herald-Leader in an email that she first ran the race while in high school. Wilson was a cross country and track athlete at Bourbon County High School in Paris.

“It was my first road race and the distance was a challenge,” Wilson recalled about the first Bluegrass 10K in the 1970s. “At that time, the longest track event for girls was one mile and cross country races were 1.5 miles.”

Wilson said she finished second in the inaugural Bluegrass 10K before winning the next year in 1978.

“As I continued my running career at UK, it seemed natural to run the race each summer and I continued to make the trip home for the race when I moved to Michigan for graduate school,” Wilson said. “Somewhere around 20 years, the Herald-Leader determined that there were nine of us who had run every year. At that point, I think we all committed to extending our streaks as long as possible.”

Even when circumstances prevented the Bluegrass 10K from occurring in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson adapted.

“We laid out a course on our family farm and hosted our own Bluegrass 10K and postrace brunch for about a dozen friends and family,” Wilson said.

Wilson said her experience with the race has shifted over time from a focus on being competitive in the event to forming relationships with family and friends through the race.

“This year, 12 family members are running. As the years have passed, the race has become a way to mark the passage of time, to consider, as I again make the trek out Richmond Road and down Main Street, how my life has changed since I did the same last year,” Wilson said.

According to Wilson, a core group of runners remain that have likely participated in all 46 Bluegrass 10Ks in history.

They are: Bob Barnes, Tim Bailey, Ken Catron, Robert Henthorne, Christy Robinson, Frances Ross and Wilson.

Names matching Barnes, Bailey, Catron, Henthorne, Robinson and Wilson were listed on this year’s in-person results page.

If you have or know someone who has run in all 46 Bluegrass 10Ks, email Herald-Leader reporter Cameron Drummond at cdrummond@herald-leader.com.

Conrad Blanchett, 7, runs ahead of the rest of his family during the Bluegrass 10,000.
Conrad Blanchett, 7, runs ahead of the rest of his family during the Bluegrass 10,000.
Phillina Wingate is cheered on by friends and family as she crosses the finish line in the Bluegrass 10,000.
Phillina Wingate is cheered on by friends and family as she crosses the finish line in the Bluegrass 10,000.
Runners start the Bluegrass 10,000 race on Monday in downtown Lexington. According to the online race results, there were 1,648 in-person runners who recorded a time.
Runners start the Bluegrass 10,000 race on Monday in downtown Lexington. According to the online race results, there were 1,648 in-person runners who recorded a time.