Dozens of 35-inch blades pinged loudly in split-second succession during orchestrated dances by 253 fencers at the Jamil Shrine Center in the St. Andrews area.

Winners of the 3- to 9-minute bouts earned the chance to become Southeastern fencing champions and vie in July for national championship in San Jose, Calif.

The centuries-old sport of lunge, parry and thrust has as many variations as there are competitors with agile minds and hands.

"A lot of people say it's like playing chess at 90 miles per hour - with a sword," said Al Blakeborough, head instructor at Greenville's Knights of the Siena Fencing Academy.

Blakeborough coaches Eli Zipkin, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Matthews, N.C., who won the under-19 competition in the most aggressive of three categories, sabres. The others are epee and foil.

"This is probably the biggest tournament I've ever won," the clearly thrilled teen said, adding he competes one age group older than his years.

Zipkin has been fencing 3 1/2 years after deciding he loved steel blades more than tennis rackets. At age 12, he ranked 26th in tennis in North Carolina, his parents said.

"At that time I was all into swords and ninjas and Japanese in black," he said. "I thought it was cool.

"And there was the fun; getting to hit people with swords and not get in trouble for it."

Zipkin said he gets no grief at Charlotte's Providence High School for participating in a sport where he wears tight knickers, knee-high stockings and a steel mesh helmet.

Rick Thompson, an event organizer and owner of Palmetto Fencers, said the sport tends to attract the highly disciplined and focused as well as the keenly bright.

Zipkin said he makes As and Bs and was ranked second in his high school freshman class. He said it without hubris.

Only one Columbia-area competitor won a top-three finish, Thompson said. Michael Green, 25, placed third in senior men's foil.

The sport also appeals to women, who comprised about one-third of the weekend's participants. Women compete and are scored exactly as men and sometimes fight men at regional and local tournaments, Thompson said.

National and international tournament rules separate competitors by gender and age.

A woman from Birmingham, Ala., Luona Wang, won one of the biggest competitions here, senior women's foil.

Amy Sands, a USC sophomore who grew up in Irmo and is new to the sport, said fencing appeals to her artistic, unconventional side and to her sense of allure.

"It's very romantic," said Sands, who did not compete at this tournament but helped at the admissions counter.

She was smitten in elementary school when she watched the swordplay in the movie, "Princess Bride."

"I was intrigued," she said. "The danger. The excitement. The clashing of blades."

Now that Sands knows the sport, she enjoys motion picture depictions as "just an exaggerated parry drill."

She has come to value the cerebral aspects.

"I enjoy the mind game. I enjoy just trying to figure out (an opponent). There's that feeling that I'm smarter than you. How can I trick you?"

David Zipkin, Eli's father, said he likes what fencing has done for his son.

"If you can get your child interested in something athletic and something artistic ... then they'll grow up to be a good person."

Still, he said, fencing cost him a tennis partner.