UK track and field alumni win the day at 2025 Bluegrass 10,000
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- Lexington's Bluegrass 10,000 drew over 2,400 racers to downtown in 2025.
- Jacob Thomson and Katy Presley led overall and women's 10K finishes, respectively.
- Adaptive divisions saw Chad Johnson, Jason Wilke and Mikiahya Greene take top honors.
Seven years after their graduation from the University of Kentucky and its storied track and field program, a pair of former All-America Wildcats added some red, white and blue hardware to their trophy cases on the Fourth of July.
Jacob Thomson and Katy Presley (née Kunc) each returned to Lexington this holiday to tackle the 49th annual Bluegrass 10,000, and their efforts were greatly rewarded with triumphant victories; Thomson posted an overall-best chip time of 29:52.7, while Presley paced all female finishers, and placed 20th overall, with a chip time of 35:23.5.
Thomson, who now lives and trains full-time in Flagstaff, Arizona, as a professional track and field athlete for Under Armour, had never participated in the Bluegrass 10,000 until this year. For Thomson, a personally historic July couldn’t have started any better than with a victory.
In two weeks, Thomson will marry his fiancée, a Lexington native. Before that, from July 9-13 at Berea College, he’ll oversee the Bluegrass Running Camp, which he helped found as a means to help “lay the foundation” for youth cross country runners across the commonwealth.
Why not, then, take advantage of one of Lexington’s most beloved holiday traditions?
As a 2023 USA Half Marathon winner, two-time Olympic Trials qualifier at 10,000 meters, a 12-time KHSAA state titlist with Holy Cross in Louisville and a two-time SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year (cross country, 2016-17), Thomson certainly had the resume of a potential champion.
“I’m just back here to take care of the camp,” Thomson said. “And yeah, get ready for the wedding and figured I’d hop in here while I’m here.”
Thomson, like many who came before him — and even some Bluegrass 10,000 veterans — was thrown by the “deceivingly hard course,” noting the difficulty of the hills throughout the route.
“I don’t know if it’s the heat, or what,” Thomson said. “The hills don’t look massive, but they just kind of go on for a long time. It was fun, though, once you made the turn (around the 4-mile marker), you’re coming back past the crowds for the last 2 miles.”
For those familiar with the central Kentucky running scene, Presley is a force. When the opportunity arose for the Burke, Virginia, native to visit her college town and participate in her fifth Bluegrass 10K, it was one she couldn’t pass up.
“I love this race,” Presley said. “Coming back to Lexington is always so special. I love the energy of the crowds. It’s just a fun way to celebrate Fourth of July.”
Now a marketing professional in Cincinnati, the six-time SEC medalist and 2017 SEC Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year competes in road races and marathons and has aspirations to participate in the marathon trial for the 2028 Olympics; Presley reached the finals for the 3K steeplechase Olympic Trials in 2021.
Before a hip injury and subsequent surgery took her away from the Bluegrass 10,000 for a few years, Presley set the women’s foot race record in 2021 with a time of 33:33. Presley said her recovery process has given her a new perspective.
“After having my hip surgery,” Presley said. “I definitely look at running differently. And now, every day I get to run pain-free is such a blessing to me. So I’m definitely grateful for that, getting to just do any race is great. Training for the marathon … I don’t know, I love the grind. I love doing high mileage, and, working a full-time job, it’s definitely difficult to handle both. But I’ve always been someone that can get in a routine, really dial in on training. And I love that part of it, just the process, so I’m enjoying the journey.”
College athletics continued to get their shine over in the female push-rim wheelchair division, in which University of Cincinnati student, Erlanger native and UC adaptive athlete Mikiahya Greene reigned victorious with a chip-time of 44:25.4.
Greene, who just celebrated a first-place finish in the Flying Pig’s hand cycle 10K, participated in the Bluegrass 10,000 for the first time this Fourth of July.
“(The Flying Pig) was really fun,” Greene said. “And my coach had mentioned this one to me, so I was like, ‘OK, we’ll try it!’ So I feel like it’s a nice way to start off the Fourth of July because I can still go and enjoy the fireworks. And I started it off with a win.”
Greene crossed her two-year anniversary of being in her chair last week, after a shooting left her paralyzed in June 2023. The 22-year-old spoke to the preparation it takes to win a wheelchair race — a sport which, as it continues to grow, many are learning of for the first time.
“A lot of people don’t know about it,” Greene said. “But it takes just as much, if not more, training than a regular able-bodied sport, just because I don’t have the use of my lower limbs. So I do a lot of what I’m doing with my upper strength. So, pushing this chair, a lot of people are running in this race, and I’m pushing with my arms. You obviously have more muscle mass in your legs than your arms, so you’re putting in 10 times more work to build up that stamina.”
Chad Johnson earned first-place honors in the men’s push-rim wheelchair division, finishing more than five minutes before the second-place finisher with a chip time of 28:08.2.
Jason Wilke led the way in the hand-crank wheelchair division with a chip time of 31:15.3.
Wilke, a Cincinnati native now living in Lexington who used his day off from work to participate in the “fun atmosphere,” was glad to be one of the nine adaptive athletes to race in the Bluegrass 10,000.
“I wanted to participate because I’ve always been an athlete,” Wilke said. “Even after my injury, I’m still an athlete. Just looks a little different. And hand cycling is probably my favorite thing to do after my injury, so doing a fun event like this is a no-brainer.”
This year’s running of the Bluegrass 10,000 featured 2,461 racers, making up the majority of the 2,807 registrants who — whether through the titular 10K, either in person or virtually (14), the one-mile fun run (323) or either the push-rim (six) or crank wheelchair (three) categories — enjoyed the first event of the city’s packed holiday slate.
View the complete results from the 2025 Bluegrass 10,000.
This story was originally published July 4, 2025 at 10:54 AM.
