Kili Lehmkuhl

Position:
Nordic
Height:
5-3
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Tahoe City, Calif.
High School:
North Tahoe
Prev School:
Auburn Ski Club

Two-Time National All-Academic Ski Team (2024, '25, 3.5 Cumulative GPA)
Two-Time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll (2023, '24)
Four-Time Letterwinner (2022, ‘23, '24, '25)
CU 4.0 Club (2025)

At Colorado: Career—A steady force on and off the snow for the Buffaloes throughout her career, she competed in all 45 possible races in her career and finished all of them, coming up with 13 top 20 performances throughout her career, which included seven classic top 20s and six freestyle.

2025 (Senior)—Lehmkuhl closed out her college career with another season where she finished all of her races, 12 during this season, with three top 20 performances. She was again at her best at the DU Invitational at Maloit Park, when she took home 14th-place in the 7.5K classic race and followed that up with a 16th-place finish in the 10K freestyle pursuit race the following day. Her other top 20 was a 20th-place finish in the 20K classic race at the UAA Invitational, which was a result pulled from the US National Championships. She was named to the CU 4.0 Club and again a member of the National All-Academic Ski Team.

2024 (Junior)—Lehmkuhl finished her junior season, finishing all 11 races she competed in with one top 20 performance, taking 19th place in the 5K freestyle race at the Denver Invitational. She did have five other top 30 performances throughout the season, with her best classic result also at the DU Invitational, taking 22nd in the 10K classic race. She was named to the National All-Academic Ski Team and was a member of the Pac-12 Winter Honor Roll.

2023 (Sophomore)—Lehmkuhl had another solid season in 2023, picking up where she left off as a freshman and earning five top 20 performances, three in classic and two in freestyle, in her 12 races. Four of her five top 20s came in a row at the Montana State and CU Invitationals, and coding the DU Invitational, she ha six straight finishes in the top 21. Her best finishes were both at the MSU Invite, where she took 15th in the 15K classic and 13th in the 5K freestyle race. She earned her second letter as part of the Buffaloes and got it done in the classroom, as well, earning Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll mention.

2022 (Freshman)—Lehmkuhl finished her freshman season picking up some solid collegiate experience, finishing all 10 races she skied in and consistently finishing all 10 between 14th and 24th places. She had four top 20 finishes along the way. She opened her career with a 21st place finish in the freestyle sprint races at the U.S. National Championships, which doubled as the Utah Invitational. She was then 19th in the 10K classic race and 22nd in an extra qualifier classic sprint race. At Montana State, she was 21st in the 5K freestyle and 23rd in the 10K classic race and then at Fairbanks, Alaska, she finished 23rd in the 5K classic and 24th in the 10K freestyle races as part of the UAF Nanook Invitational before finishing 18th in a 5K freestyle race as part of the RMISA Invitational there in Fairbanks. She saved her best for last, picking up her season best finishes at the RMISA Championships with an 18th place finish in the 5K classic and 14th place finish in the 15K freestyle race.

Prior To CU—Lehmkuhl joins the Buffs from the Auburn Ski Club, where she spent four seasons after spending the previous five seasons from 2013-17 on the Tahoe Cross Country Development team under coaches Gus Johnson and Lizzie Larkins. She has competed at the U.S. Junior National Championships the past three years. In 2018, she took ninth place in the 5K freestyle race. In 2019, her freestyle relay team took fifth place and in 2021, she was seventh in the freestyle sprint. At the regional championships, she took home 10th place in the 10K freestyle race at the Regional Championships. At North Tahoe High School, she won the state championship as a senior and was the runner-up her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

High School—Lehmkuhl graduated from North Tahoe High School in Tahoe City, Calif., in 2021. She also ran cross country in high school and won the state championship as a junior after taking second as a freshman and third as a sophomore.

In The Classroom—She graudated from Colorado in 2025 with a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies. She earned Distinguished Scholar Awards all four years at North Tahoe High School.

Personal—Kili Lehmkuhl was born Oct. 9, 2003, in Truckee, Calif. She entered CU at just 17 years old. Her parents are Rebecca Gordon and Scott Lehmkuhl. She has one sister, Quinn, who graduated from CU in 2021 and skied for the Buffs for four seasons while earning a degree in Integrative Physiology. She would like to get a job in the environmental field after graduating and has volunteered with SWEP, a non-profit in the Tahoe area that does environmental conservation work. She loves the outdoors and nature.