BETHLEHEM - Tri-Valley's Sammy Hepler paced back and forth, occasionally chomping on his blue mouthpiece.
Headgear firmly in place, the freshman 106-pounder wore his camo-style T-shirt with "Bulldogs'' on the front.
A few minutes later, Hepler drilled with teammate and fellow No. 1 seed Caleb Bordner, working top, bottom and neutral and getting a good sweat going.
When the announcer said, "Wrestlers, clear the mats please," to start the quarterfinals at the District 11 Class AA Wrestling Tournament, Hepler enthusiastically clapped his hands a few times.
He was ready to go.
Seventy-six seconds later, Hepler moved safely into the semifinals, sticking Robbie Shoemaker of Pius X in 1:16. In the first round, Hepler decked Catasauqua's Alec Hartranft in 31 seconds.
"I was pretty ready. I did everything right this week, got the weight down,'' Hepler said. "I was just ready to roll.
"It feels great. I just want to make it to states and hopefully get a medal,'' he added. "It starts right here, one match at a time and just keep going.''
Hepler was the first of 20 area wrestlers to advance to the semifinals during Friday night's Class AA competition at Bethlehem Freedom High School.
Including Hepler, five of them are from Tri-Valley.
That moved the Dawgs into fifth place in the team standings with 55 points. State team champion Bethlehem Catholic advanced 11 to the semifinals and leads the team race with 118 points. Saucon Valley (73) is second, followed by North Schuylkill (63), Catasauqua (58) and the Dawgs. Pine Grove (47) ranks sixth in the 23-team field.
At 120, Bordner posted a fall before stopping Northwestern Lehigh's Jarret White 9-2. No. 3 seed Chase Schaeffer (138), No. 2 Hunter Harner (145) and No. 2 Anthony Snyder (152) also won twice to reach the semifinals. In the quarterfinals, Schaef-fer locked up a late cradle to pull away from Pine Grove's Jared McCabe 8-1. Harner and Snyder notched two pins apiece for the Dawgs.
"Watching them win feels good - they gotta win, you gotta win kind of thing,'' Snyder said. "It kind of puts it on your back. It just gives you a drive.
"Watching my buddies kick butt makes me want to kick some butt."
North Schuylkill and Panther Valley have four wrestlers apiece in the semifinals, followed by Pine Grove with three, Tamaqua with two and Schuylkill Haven and Jim Thorpe with one each.
No. 3 Garet Grove (160), No. 2 Auston Hummel (170), No. 4 Alek Hummel (195) and No. 3 Nate Gadinski (285) won two bouts apiece for North Schuylkill. The four Spartans pinned all eight of their opponents.
Panther Valley's Lenny Ogozalek (113), the No. 3 seed, had to go the distance in the quarterfinals, riding out Northwestern Lehigh's Quentin Bernhard in the 30-second ultimate tiebreaker for a 3-2 decision.
At 120, No. 5 Darren Goida knocked off No. 4 Shane McGrath of North Schuylkill 4-2 in sudden victory. No. 3 seeds Richard Nase (195) and Rian Shubeck (220) advanced with decision wins in the quarterfinals.
No. 2 Guy Zimmerman (182) notched a pair of pins for Pine Grove, while No. 2 Ryan Martin (220) had a bye and a 63-second fall. Martin and Shubeck will meet in the semifinals.
At 152, Pine Grove's Ryan Heim had a fall and a 7-1 decision over Catasauqua's Nathan Doria. The third-seeded Heim will take on No. 2 Snyder of Tri-Valley in the semifinals.
Tamaqua's Colin Mashack (126) and Dylan Rynkiewicz (132) also moved ahead. The second-seeded Mashack had a pin and a 10-0 major decision over North Schuylkill's Jess Wetzel. The third-seeded Rynkiewicz posted a pin and an 8-4 decision over Saucon Valley's Dylan Yonney.
At 106, third-seeded Kevan Gentile of Jim Thorpe won by technical fall and decision to advance. In the quarterfinals, he topped Jack Hill (32-9) of Saucon Valley 5-1.
And at 285, fourth-seeded Nate Kramer of Schuylkill Haven won by fall in the preliminaries and 2-1 over Catasauqua's Jared Nosal in the quarterfinals.
Action resumes at 9 a.m. today at Freedom with the second round of consolations. The championship semifinals and third round of consolations are set for 10:30 a.m., with another round of wrestlebacks to follow.
For the evening session, the scene shifts to Bethlehem Liberty, where the District 11 Class AAA Tournament is being held. The two classes will wrestle at the same time - fifth- and third-place bouts at 5 p.m. and championship finals at 7:15.
The top four placewinners in each weight class advance to the Southeast Regional Class AA Tournament next Friday and Saturday at Wilson West Lawn.