BRANDON — Hometown. That could well serve as the theme for Saturday's Otter Valley Invitational wrestling tournament.

There was Otter Valley's Maisa Allen thrilling the hometown crowd with her first tournament victory. She was the champion in the 113 weight class.

Then, there was Spaulding of Barre winning the team championship and getting ready to host one mammoth hometown party on Feb. 28 and March 1 with the Vermont State Wrestling Championship at Barre Auditorium.

Spaulding's Elias Kalat won Saturday's championship in the 138 weight division and was also named Wrestler of the Tournament. He is looking forward to having the State Championship in his backyard.

"It means a lot having the state tournament in Barre. I hope all of the town will come out for it," Kalat said.

"It is a great place to have it. It will give everyone a little more breathing room," Rutland coach David Cardenas said.

Kalat has built quite a resume as a 100-win wrestler but winning the honors at the Otter Valley Invitational was something special to him.

"It was the first tournament of the year for me and you get to see all of Vermont's top wrestlers," Kalat said.

Springfield, a team with three 100-victory wrestlers, had a solid fifth-place showing in the event that boasted 19 schools.

"I think it was the largest tournament in the 16 years," said Otter Valley coach Cole Mason. His Otters finished sixth, just a half point behind Springfield.

Those three Springfield wrestlers with 100 wins are Hunter Ferland, Dillan Lacasse and Noah Markwell.

Springfield's Jonathan Lake also had a big day earning his way into the consolation finals in the 215 weight class.

"That was phenomenal wrestling, an exciting match," said Cosmos coach Don Beebe after Lake's final match.

The top 10 teams : 1. Spaulding 196.5, 2. Middlebury 169.5, 3. Granville/Whitehall of New York State, 143, 4. Vergennes 112.5, 5. Springfield 96.6.5, Otter Valley 96, 7 Randolph 71, 8. Mill River and Mount Abraham tied at 64, 10. South Burlington 44.5.

The champions in each weight class: Vergennes' Joey Maneen at 106, Otter Valley's Maisa Allen at 113, North Country's Eoin Comes at 120, Vergennes' Steven Kittredge at 126, Lyndon's Karter Morey at 132, Spaulding's Elias Kalat at 138, Granville/Whitehall's Nathan Barber at 144, Spaulding's Landin Larrabee at 150, Middlebury's Avery Carl at 157, Granville/Whitehall's Jackson Torres at 165, Middlebury's Tucker Wright at 175, Granville/Whitehall's Brandon Beaver at 190, Vergennes' Isaac Preston at 215 and Granville/Whitehall's Antonio Landon at 285.

Toby Pytlik had a big day for Mill River, winning matches to the consolation round in the 150 weight class.

"He is a contender, for sure," Mill River coach Zach Allen said of Pytlik's chances in Barre at the biggest meet.

That would mean a couple shots at a state title for Pytlik, also one of the state's top snowboarders.

Teams like Spaulding, Middlebury and Vergennes can look forward to the biggest stage in Barre with realistic notions of doing special things as can all of the individual champions of the Otter Valley Invitational.

But the Otter Valley Invitational means something different to every team.

The OV Invitational for the fledgling Rutland High School team is a trailhead. It is something that they hope will lead to a path that will put them on a course to someday contend for state championship honors.

You have to start somewhere and Cardenas, a former wrestler at WPI, and his wrestlers believe that day will come.

Rutland's Micah Perez and Tupper Quenneville had very successful runs on Saturday, giving a snapshot of what Rutland's future can be in the sport.

Quenneville made it all the way to a third-place finish in the 132 weight class and Perez was in the match for third place in the 126 division.

"I think it is going to become a winning tradition," Perez said.

"I think this is just a steppingstone. We are all getting better."

Perez plans to invest time in the sport this summer.

"I will do camps and anything else that I can do," the sophomore said.

Cardenas has plans to strengthen the schedule with more of these type of tournaments.

"It is about getting out of state," he said of exposing his wrestlers to different levels.

This year, he took them to the Framingham Holiday Tournament in Massachusetts.

"We are double what we were last year with 26 on the team. We have four seventh and eighth graders who practice with us and they are tough as nails," Cardenas said. "We've got a good group. I was lucky."

He points to wrestlers like Garrett Portillo, Perez and Grady Gallagher as the type of guys who give the team leadership.

"They lead by example and are buying into the program," Cardenas said.

"We are right where we want to be. We want to place at States and represent Rutland in the New Englands."

Gallagher, a junior captain, has been an exemplary fit for that role.

"He leads by example. He works the hardest of anyone in the room," Cardenas said.

An event like the Otter Valley Invitational was a trailhead that Cardenas views as opening onto the road that will take the RHS program to heights in the upper echelon occupied by the likes of Mount Anthony and Spaulding.

He wants to see the day soon when Rutland County will have another such day-long extravaganza akin to the Otter Valley Invitational and Fair Haven's Shaddock Duals.

"Eventually we want host a Rutland Invitational," Cardenas said.