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Pennison, no, the other one, wins Hannan's sole title
LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament
Division III, 170 Pounds
May 9th, 2021 | Written by: Staff Writer




Weight Class Synopsis Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd and 5th Finals

Place 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Podium
Name Mark Penniston John Reina Landon Royer Christian Johnson James Baldwin Colin Hebert
School Hannan St. Louis DeQuincy Bossier Dunham St. Michael
Seed 1 2 4 3 7 5
Class 12 12 12 10 10 12
Final Record 14-0 14-5 7-5 6-3 12-5 7-7

Final records include Louisiana losses but all wins

Weight Class Synopsis

When it was all over, just like in 2020, Hannan's sole individual champion was a Pennison.  But it was not defending 2020 Division III champion Grayson.  This time it his older brother Mark.  As Mark did in 2020, Grayson finished as a runner-up in 2021.

The top three seeds had at least one thing in common - they all lost matches to East Ascension's Brad Mahoney.  They were not alone in that, of course, as over 40 others shared that experience this season.

For the top-seeded Pennison, though, Mahoney was his only loss, and it came in the Louisiana Classic finals.  Pennison defeated Reina in the Brusly Invitational finals and Baldwin in the Louisiana Classic, which alone may have earned him the top spot on the bracket.  A 6-4 Sudden Victory win over Division II runner-up Andrew Gonzales of North Desoto in the LACL sealed it.

Reina won the Jacob McMillan Memorial prior to his runner-up finish at Brusly.  He also took Mahoney, Gonzales and Division II state champion John Paul Travasos the entire six minutes in 13-5, 9-4 and 6-4 matches, respectfully.  His only other loss was to Penniston.

Pennison advanced to the finals via a 2:22 fall and a 10-0 Major Decision.  Reina scored a 10-9 victory over Dunham's James Baldwin followed by a semifinals pin in 4:42 over third-seeded Christian Johnson of Bossier.

Johnson's record, albeit only 3-1, looked better when one learned his only loss was to Mahoney.  Royer's looked even better despite the four losses.  They all came from Division I and Division II placers, but that was not known at the time.

Baldwin was not expected to be on the podium, but on after an awesome 10-9 loss to Reina in the quarterfinals he eked past sixth-seeded Jacob Queflander of Basile 7-5 in Sudden Victory in the consolation quarterfinals.  (Queflander beat Baldwin in 3:54 in the Brusly Invitational.)  Baldwin could have easily been in the #3 spot as, aside from the loss to Queflander, his only other losses were to Pennison and Comeaux's Morgan Burke.

Fourth-seeded Landon Royer of DeQuincy made it to the semifinals and then the consolation finals after defeating Baldwin in 4:42.  There he pinned Johnson of Bossier in 1:17.  Johnson defeated St. Michael senior Collin Hebert in 4:33 to earn the match with Royer.  In the match for fifth-place Baldwin defeated Hebert 6-1.

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Quarterfinals

(1) Mark Penniston (HAN) pinned Anthony Denova (BRU) in 2:22
(4) Landon Royer (DEQ) defeated (5) Colin Hebert (StM) 11-0 MD
(3) Christian Johnson (BOS) pinned (6) Jacob Queflander (BAS) in 1:35
(2) John Reina (StL) defeated (7) James Baldwin (DUN) 10-9

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Semifinals

(1) Mark Pennison (HAN) defeated (4) Landon Royer (DEQ) 11-0 MD
(2) John Reina (StL) pinned (3) Christian Johnson (BOS) in 4:422

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Championship Consolation Rounds

(4) Landon Royer (DEQ) pinned (3) Christian Johnson (BOS) in 1:17 to place 3rd
(7) James Baldwin (DUN) defeated (6) Jason Queflandeer (BAS) 5-1 to place 5th

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Finals

Top-seed Mark Pennison of Archbishop Hannan pinned second-seeded John Reina of St. Louis in 1:19
 
Pennison hit a head-and-arm toss on Reina in the first 10 seconds.  That is when "Only 1:50 left" are not considered words of encouragement.  It took another 1:10 for Pennison to sufficiently tire-out Reina and then apply one last squeeze to score the fall.

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