Christian Pena took full advantage of his two-day Western Invitational wrestling tournament run, nearly capturing the 145-pound title in a championship match loss to Escalon’s Jason Robbins Saturday at Modesto Junior College.

Pena worked through three opponents and a bye to earn a berth in the championship match. He was the only Spartan to land a championship berth, but was one of four teammates to finish in the tournament’s top-6.

Alex Garcia (106-pound), Andrew Aquino (126-pound) and Jay Butler (182-pound) all finished with sixth place endings. Garcia slipped in his fifth place match 10-5, while Aquino’s fifth place match was much closer but still a 5-2 setback.

“I am proud of how we wrestled today,” Lathrop head coach Dimos Birakos said. “I think everything went well for us, up until our final matches.

“Christian had a really good tournament and almost won his weight.”