BETHLEHEM Navigating the opening rounds at the District 11 Wrestling Championships can be a perilous task, with little room for error.

As the best wrestlers in the Class AA field converged on Freedom High School Friday evening, several TIMES NEWS area grapplers found their way into the second day with strong performances on the opening night of the tournament.Panther Valley put four in today's semifinals, led by Lenny Ogozalek (113), Darren Goida (120), Richard Nase (195) and Rian Shubeck (220).Ogozalek and Goida both advanced with overtime wins in the quarterfinals.The victory was especially satisfying for Ogozalek, who was forced to withdraw from last year's semifinals due to asthma related issues."Winning (in overtime) like that just felt great," the senior said. "It's a great confidence booster compared to last year. Now I know I can go that long if I need to."Ogozalek, the third seed, will face No. 2 Jacob Wasser of Palisades in the semis, the same opponent he had last year.Goida will face top-seed Caleb Bordner of Tri-Valley, Nase will take on Catty's Rhaine Sziy, the second seed, and Shubeck will face Pine Grove's Ryan Martin, also the second seed.In addition to Ogozalek, Nase, Goida and Shubeck, Panther Valley will also have Hunter Davidyock (138), Matt Buss (160) and Lukas Mika (285) in the consolation rounds.Lehighton placed three in the semifinals, with Zachary Kemmerer (113), Tegan Durishin (120) and Connor Frey (182) all advancing.Frey, the third seed, will take on No. 2 Guy Zimmerman of Pine Grove, in what will be the rubber-match for the two."I just have to take him down a couple times," Frey said. "If I take him down four times, I win the match, that's the way I'm going into it."Kemmerer will face top-seed Luke Karam of Bethlehem Catholic, a challenge he's ready for."I just go into every match telling myself I'm going to win, no matter who it is," the sophomore said. "Mentally, I just tell myself I can do anything."Lehighton coach Dan Williams shared his team's optimism."I thought we wrestled really tough today," Williams said. "We set ourselves up to be able to comeback and hopefully get some medals."Kemmerer, Durishin and Frey won't be the only ones looking for hardware, as the Indians also put four in the consolation rounds.Ezra Neff (106), Anthony Farano (145), Tyler Cann (152) and Dominik Mystkowski (170) will all be looking to advance later on today.Palmerton and Tamaqua will each have two wrestlers in the semifinals.The Bombers' Josh Evans (138) and Zachary Graver (160) both advanced with convincing wins, while Colin Mashack (126) and Dylan Rynkiewicz (132) moved on for the Raiders.Evans, who is the No. 2 seed, will take on third seed Chase Schaeffer of Tri-Valley, while the top-seeded Graver will face No. 4 Adam Soldridge of Bethlehem Catholic.Having qualified for states a year ago, Graver knows he will have to be on top of his game today."I thought I started off a little slow and I was a little sluggish in my second match," the junior said. "I just want to look better tomorrow, because that's where it counts."Northwestern and Jim Thorpe will each have one representative in the semifinals, both in the same weight class.The Olympians' Kevan Gentile and the Tigers' Baily Wehr will each represent their respective programs in the semis with a chance to meet in the finals.While the inclusion of Gentile is somewhat expected as the third seed, Wehr's appearance is surprising only because he entered seeded 12th.The freshman knocked off No. 5 Mason Madden-Edwards of North Schuylkill in the prelims, then outlasted Central Catholic's Noah Rex in overtime during the quarterfinals."It was just so tough beating him," Wehr said of defeating Rex. "At the end, I thought I lost, but I just went for it and everything worked out."Gentile won his two bouts in convincing fashion and now faces a tough opponent in Bethlehem Catholic's Jake Reigel for a chance to move on to the finals."I'm really excited that I have a chance to place and just move on," Gentile said. "I just need to move my feet more, be faster and take more shots."While Gentile will be the only Olympian in the semis, Jim Thorpe will have several chances to put wrestlers through in the consolation rounds, as Ali Capobianco (132), Antonio Madera (145), Robbie Geisinger (160), Justice Batts (220), and Ryan O'Rourke (285) will look to bounce back quickly.Northern Lehigh, which had five wrestlers in the quarterfinals failed to place anyone in the semis.But all was not lost for the Bulldogs, who will feature a whopping nine wrestlers in the second round of consolation matches."We knew it was going to be tough to move guys into the semis and finals, but we had a few shots," said Northern Lehigh coach Steve Hluschak."We knew we didn't have any sure locks to move on, but we have a lot of guys that have opportunities. Now they just have to wrestle well."Northern Lehigh will have Colton Rex (106), Jacob Kistler (113), Matt Schmall (126), Ryan Rubio (132), Ryan Farber (138), CJ Young (145), Nate Farber (152), Austin Arnold (160) and Cameron Kates (285) looking to move out of the consolation rounds.Northwestern and Palmerton each feature three in the second round of the consolation matches.The Tigers will have Bernhard (113), Jarret White (120) and David VanBlargen (132), while the Bombers will feature Daniel Russo (126), Jared Mooney (170) and Matt Wolfe (182).Tamaqua's Tanner McHugh (113) will also be in a consolation match after losing to Kemmerer in the quarterfinals.The top four wrestlers in Class AA advance to next week's regional tournament at Wilson West Lawn High School, making every match today critical.