At the beginning of the season in October she was ranked 27th, but now only Realyn Jacobson of San Jose, Calif., is ahead of her. I never thought I'd make it this far. I love it. The sport is at least 5,000 years old, but it's not a very well-known sport in the U.S. Szarwark said she gets all kinds of reactions when she tells people what her favorite sport is. A lot of people think it's like the movies, like Zorro.
Fencers wear lots of equipment to prevent injuries, but the swords break through sometimes.
There's some breakage of skin, but it's not too bad. There are several top-notch fencers in the Nashville area, including Stephanie Eim and Zoe Hawes. Eim finished second in the NCAA tournament as a freshman in epee for Penn State, which won its fifth straight national championship last season. Hawes competed in last year's World Military Games in the foil and she finished 18th in the NCAA tournament at Air Force in 1998. Murfreesboro's Pete Norris has fenced with Szarwark for the past two years and she gives him quite a battle.