After winning two state titles for Pittsburgh Central Catholic, Penn State’s Vincenzo Joseph has gone on to have one of the strangest careers I’ve ever seen from a wrestler of his caliber.

As a redshirt freshman at 165 pounds, he took his lumps early in the season to dangerous journeymen and title contenders alike, falling twice to the two-time reigning NCAA champion Isaiah Martinez in a dual meet and at the Big 10 Championship.

Cenzo

But at the NCAA tournament, Joseph was undeniable.

Using clutch inside trips from overhooks, Joseph stole victories from the mat monster Daniel Lewis and freestyle standout Logan Massa to make the NCAA finals. In his rematch against the great Isaiah Martinez, it was the inside trip once again that made the difference.

Martinez loves to work from underhooks, typically getting to his underhook throw-by (like David Baev and Hassan Yazdanicharati) or just straight shucking off to the back from double unders.

The Penn State coaching staff took a huge risk. Instead of focusing on avoiding those underhook positions, they designed counters. Joseph obviously worked hard on perfecting his inside trip from both over-under and double overs, taking Martinez to his back and pinning the legendary Californian for a freshman NCAA title.

In his sophomore season, Joseph rattled off 15 straight victories before he met Alex Marinelli in a dual meet vs. Iowa.

The Bull

A four-time Ohio state champion, Alex Marinelli entered college on the heels of two-straight undefeated seasons in-state. After a successful redshirt campaign, Marinelli knocked off three top ten wrestlers in his undefeated march toward the Penn State vs. Iowa dual meet.

Early in the match, it was the returning NCAA champion controlling the pace and finding his leg attacks, but disaster struck in the third period.

Marinelli locked his hands through the double underhooks, Joseph committed to his overhooks and hopped in for the trip. As Joseph’s base narrowed and his hips closed in, Marinelli crushed the bodylock, hooked over the tripping leg and collapsed Joseph backward.

The takedown to near-fall points created a lead too significant for Joseph to make up, he lost 9-6.

There would be no rematch at the Big 10 Championship, Marinelli was upset in the post-season by Logan Massa and U23 World champion Richie Lewis, a harsh fall from grace after an undefeated run.

Joseph defeated Massa to reach the finals, where he lost a 4-1 decision to Isaiah Martinez. Martinez got to his underhook throw-by positions consistently, and Joseph seemed content to keep his hips back and attempt to whizzer out. The inside trip was absent.

At the NCAA championships, Marinelli went down against Martinez then dropped two against Virginia Tech’s David McFadden and Wisconsin cradle master Evan Wick.

Joseph made the finals with a tight victory over McFadden, setting him up for yet another showdown with Martinez.

While it wasn’t the only factor in match, Vincenzo Joseph won with his inside trip off double overs. 6-1. The Penn State gameplan seemed to be based on lulling Martinez into a false sense of security, abstaining from going for huge, risky counters until the stakes were highest. For Martinez, it was ultimately a gamble between abandoning his usual game for something less effective, or going with what he knows and risking opening himself up to the same counter.

After two seasons, Joseph had zero conference championships and two NCAA titles.

The Rematch

With Martinez gone, it looked like the next NCAA title showdown would be between Vincenzo Joseph and Alex Marinelli.

Joseph won 22 straight matches, going undefeated in the regular season. Marinelli did the same, taking revenge on Evan Wick in the process.

When they met in the Big 10 Championship finals, it was the bodylock once again.

In their first match, Marinelli baited the inside trip and folded the Nittany Lion as he stepped in. This time, Marinelli capitalized on another habit to get to his best position. Off scrambles, Joseph tends to look for the head, eventually working toward a solid front headlock. But in the initial stages of those sequences, Joseph leaves a ton of space for his opponent to react.

We’ve seen if from Russian heavyweight Batras Gazzaev - if you drop forward to your knees off front headlock, you’ll be able to draw your opponent closer and potentially nab a nasty bodylock. In MMA, for example, this is a terrible idea as you’re giving your opponent an ideal guillotine position from which they can jump guard, but in wrestling, there isn’t much of a downside.

Marinelli has looked for that particular setup, but his second bodylock on Vincenzo Joseph came off the scramble.

He passed the arm for a high-c entry, switching off to attack the underhook as Joseph circled out. Because Joseph was hunting the head, the window was there for Marinelli to hook deep across the back and lock his hands, even trapping the arm on the other side.

Likely on pure instinct, Joseph postured up and stepped in to inside trip. Just like before, Marinelli hooked over the tripped leg and crushed him. An authoritative 9-3 win.

With that context in mind, let’s take a look at both of those bodylocks.

Each time, Marinelli got to his underhooks off his own offense, coming up off the leg. In the first sequence, he waited for Joseph to take the bait. In the second, it was his own attack, but Joseph’s reactions certainly did a lot of work for him.

Neither wrestler would win the NCAA title that year, as 2018 Junior World champion knocked off both of them to take the crown as a freshman.

Breaking the Streak

In three attempts, Vincenzo Joseph had two NCAA titles, and still, zero Big 10 championships. Alex Marinelli had completed two undefeated regular season runs, winning one Big 10 title, placing 6th and 7th at NCAAs respectively.

For this current 2019-2020 season, returning champion Mekhi Lewis has opted for an Olympic redshirt, chasing success at 74 kg.

The clear #1 and #2 wrestlers at 165 met for the third time this past January. Given that Vincenzo Joseph tends to peak in March, and that he was 0-2 against Marinelli, not many favored the Pittsburgh native.

It’s so strange that these high profile matches in Cenzo’s career come down to the dynamics of one position, but it truly was all about his response to underhooks.

Early in the match, Marinelli came up off a single and dug underhooks, throwing by to dig the second and work to his bodylock.

As usual, Joseph locked his hands from double overs, but his focus was clearly different. He turned his hip in toward Marinelli to create distance, keeping his hips back as he continued to circle and maintain that angle.

When Marinelli did get him square, he looked to step around and stand him up straight to start to crunch the bodylock, but Joseph stayed long and pulled out of the position. Typically he’d embrace the double overs and look for his inside trip, it was practically being fed to him, but Joseph resisted temptation, stalemating the position. With the appropriate distance, Marinelli wouldn’t be able to just bull him straight over with the outside trip.

Things remained fairly tepid into the second period.

Marinelli shot again, coming up into the underhook on his left side.

Joseph whizzered and began to circle to square up, digging his own underhook on the opposite side.

For the first time in their rivalry, we saw a true over-under position.

Marinelli locked his hands over the arm, but he wasn’t pinning it like he was in their Big 10 Championship match, Joseph had room to maneuver.

Joseph lined up his hips on an angle, he was showing the inside trip.

This time, it was Marinelli who took the bait.

As soon as the two stepped closer, Marinelli stepped around and hooked what would be the tripping leg. Would he bodylock Joseph a third time?

As soon as Joseph felt all of Marinelli’s weight commit to that left side, he squeezed his own over-under bodylock, planted the hooked leg and hit a beautiful lateral drop.

Joseph had timed Marinelli’s motion coming in for the bodylock and countered with the prettiest throw I’ve seen in college since Kaleb Young turned the tables on Steve Bleise last year.

Kaleb Young with a filthy throw late in the third to beat Steve Bleise. pic.twitter.com/oYsUWsytq7 — FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) January 13, 2019

That six-point move put Joseph in the driver’s seat, and he largely defended for the remainder of the match.

However, there was one important adjustment we saw from Marinelli which could spell trouble for Joseph in their next meeting.

Getting to the underhook and subsequently the over-under bodylock off Joseph gripping the head in a scramble, Marinelli stepped around to finish, as usual.

But instead of pressuring straight back, he continued to debase Joseph by pivoting toward the hooked leg, where Joseph had no base to stop him from tipping over.

Ultimately, it was not enough to swing the match, but in a series that has become so heavily focused on the battle of the bodylock and inside trip, this adjustment could be crucial.

As of now, Joseph is undefeated on the season, and Marinelli has suffered his first regular season loss as a starter.

In March, we’ll look for Joseph, Marinelli, Wick, David McFadden, Nebraska’s Isaiah White and perhaps even Stanford’s Shane Griffith to make a run at a 2020 165-pound NCAA Division 1 title.