When Kyle Mosher walked off the mat last March, he thought he had wrestled his last match ever. With a loss in the consolation bracket of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships, he thought his more than 15-year-long wrestling career was over. Yet, in an unexpected turn, Mosher earned one more chance. He applied for a medical gray shirt year –one last shot in the dark – and was granted an additional year of eligibility.

“When I lost in EIWAs last year, I thought it was my last match ever,” Mosher said. “And it was a really tough feeling and felt like – it was just an abrupt ending that I felt like I didn’t control to the best of my ability due to the mindset a little bit … Not a lot of people get to have this sort of redemption.  A lot of people have that final match that I had and that’s it and they have that regret for the rest of their life, wondering what it could have been like if [they had] been a little more prepared. So, I’m grateful to have this season, to be fully prepared and to be able to write my own story a little bit more, in my pen.”

Mosher started wrestling when he was just six years old, following in the footsteps of his older brother. For the Rockville Center native, wrestling quickly took over his life, and he joined the South Side High School varsity wrestling team as a seventh grader. He began to capture the eye of college coaches in his junior year and verbally committed to Columbia University early in the season.

Transitioning from high school to college wrestling is difficult for many athletes, but attending an Ivy League institution was an even bigger adjustment for Mosher.

“It was definitely a little intimidating my freshman year,” Mosher said. “It was more work than I ever had to do in high school, and it was more just the people that are around you … it’s kind of ‘eat or be eaten.’”

While this mindset may have been jarring, Mosher surrounded himself with people who have had that sort of drive his whole life.

“But it is very similar to wrestling,” Mosher said. “I mean, guys in this room, guys at the Columbia room, everybody wants to be the best. Everybody’s always putting their [maximum] effort forward and it was relatively refreshing to see that in the classroom setting.”

This effort showed on the mat: in his first season with the Lions, Mosher went 24-12 at 157 pounds, including a win over future teammate Ross McFarland. He didn’t compete during the 2020-21 season and only wrestled in nine matches the following year, undergoing UCL surgery, more commonly known as Tommy John surgery. In his last season with the Lions, Mosher went 11-6 at 174 pounds.

Due to Ivy League athletic eligibility rules, when Mosher received the medical gray shirt, he had to find a new team. He didn’t have to look far, though. Having grown up next door to Hofstra University, Mosher was familiar with the program. He also had a unique connection to Hofstra’s first-year head coach Jamie Franco, who was Mosher’s private coach for much of his youth career as well as an assistant coach at Columbia during Mosher’s final season.

“[Franco’s] a great coach, but he’s also a great friend,” Mosher said. “We have a deeper relationship than just coach and athlete. We’re peers in a sense, too, where we like hanging out with each other and spending time together.”

Combining this relationship with Franco and Mosher’s desire to stay close to home – his family comes to every match, home and away – the Pride sounded like a perfect fit.

“My first day here is always going to stick out to me because I committed here relatively late, not even relatively, very, very late,” Mosher said. “So, these guys, I don’t think they even knew who I was. They just saw this random kid pop in. I don’t know if [Franco] told them that we have a new kid joining the team, but it didn’t matter, they all kind of saw me and then took me in right away.”

As a starter at 165 pounds, Mosher is 14-8 on the season, making him second on the team in both overall wins and dual meet wins. At the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational on Dec. 6, 2024, Mosher upset No. 17 Maxx Mayfield of Northwestern University 6-3 in sudden victory, helping move him forward and eventually place eighth at the tournament.

Mosher earned a spot in the national rankings after beating his former teammate, No. 27 Cesar Alvan of Columbia, 4-1. He is currently ranked No. 28 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll, No. 31 in rating percentage index and No. 29 by FloWrestling.

Mosher credits part of his success this season to the Hofstra coaches who have helped to evolve his unique wrestling style.

“I’m very unorthodox; I do a lot of weird stuff,” Mosher said. “On my feet in the past, my only take down is mainly a fireman’s carry or a duck under, and it has gotten me a lot of takedowns, but also people know it’s coming now … So, this year [has] been trying to transition into shooting actual shots, like going for more single legs, pull singles and also shooting actual high crotches instead of trying to keep the arm and go for a dump.”

While he works on his takedowns, drilling with Mosher has given other members of the team a chance to experience a slightly non-traditional approach. Even with so many hours of practice though, one year is not enough to change everything for someone who has wrestled as long as Mosher has.

“My mindset, I wouldn’t recommend it for younger wrestlers, but I definitely am results-driven,” Mosher said. “And the whole thing that I would recommend for younger wrestlers and younger kids on this team is that you can’t be results-oriented, you have to embrace the process and embrace that you’re going in the room and you’re getting a little bit better each day.”

Heading into his final EIWA Championships on Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8, mindset is crucial for Mosher’s success.

“I think the biggest thing is staying mentally focused,” Mosher said. “And not letting the lights get too bright … past years in the EIWA’s, I kind of let the moment get too big and didn’t perform the way that I was expected to. And then this year, I kind of flipped the switch. Even in Vegas, I was trying to have fun and smile before my matches, and I wasn’t getting tunnel vision. I was trying to just embrace that this is [the] last time I’m going to be wrestling competitively, so might as well be proud of what I show out there and not try to wrestle to not lose, but to wrestle to win.”

Mosher and the rest of the Pride compete at the EIWA Championships at Lehigh University this weekend. Placing and qualifying for the National Championships are the goals of every wrestler, but for Mosher, this tournament represents something more – a final opportunity to leave the mat on his terms.