Thanks to everyone for the advice. I played a bit more aggressively tonight early in the pots, and restrained myself from going all-in unless I knew I had the best hand. It was much easier to predict what people had when there weren't 4 or 5 people limping in to each flop...

In a freeroll tourny for entry into a paid tourny -- I finished 24th (first spot to earn an entry). I did have an incredible rush 2 hours in (got 4 of a kind twice in 20 hands) that helped me build a stack and take the pressure off. So while there was definitely a lot of luck involved, I also know I played much better.