By Emma Bouthillette
Staff Writer
Between working as a nanny in Cape Porpoise and at Saxony Imports in Kennebunkport, Cara Taggersell, 18, of Kennebunk, grabbed a quick lunch Friday at Port Bakery.
The recent Kennebunk High School graduate also found time between her two jobs to travel to San Jose, Calif. for the July 8 National Fencing Championships, where she won a gold medal for Division II Women’s Foil.
Taggersell remembers asking Santa Claus for fencing lessons when she was 8 years old, but can’t remember why she wanted to start fencing. She said her wish wasn’t granted, but started lessons as a birthday present the following year. Ever since, she has been fencing under the instruction of Nancy Reynolds at the Portland Fencing Center in Westbrook.
She described fencing as an “all body sport,” and said fencers need core strength, flexibility, agility, speed and stamina. While on a national level, competitions are separated by gender, but in other fencing arenas, gender doesn’t matter. She said her favorite people to fence are large men.
“They are big, and because they are slow, they have bigger hand movements. I can beat them with speedy, quick, tight hand actions,” she said. “It’s like playing physical chess. You have to be thinking 10 steps ahead of your opponent, while they are thinking 10 steps ahead of you.”
Taggersell said being a successful fencer requires a body like a jockey or a gymnast. While she is about average height, her slender build allows her to move quickly and make small, but effective movements of her weapon.
She said she practices about four hours, two days a week, plus private lessons with Reynolds.
In San Jose, Taggersell was placed in a pool of seven fencers before qualifying for direct elimination. Her opponents were all females between the ages of 17 and 22. By the end of the day, her practice paid off when she defeated them all.
“In the pool, I fenced six bouts up to five touches each bout. That is a possible score of 30 touches and 30 touches scored against me. I then was seated according to victories and indicators,” she said.
Wires in the body suits and weapons register touches, Taggersell said. When enough pressure is placed on the weapon, she said it completes the circuit and a light flashes to indicate a touch has occurred. A bout lasts as long as it takes for one fencer to reach five touches in a pool or 15 in direct elimination.
“It’s a hard sport to explain. There is so much technical training and so many rules,” she said.
After the round of six pool bouts, Taggersell moved to direct elimination and fenced another seven bouts. The 13 bouts totaled 10 hours of fencing. She said by the time she won gold she was physically and mentally exhausted. Three days later, she said, her body was still sore.
“I was eating fruit between bouts, and the trainer came over to tell me I had to chew my food slower and longer so my digestive system didn’t have to work. I had to chew my food for so long it was tasteless mush. I needed to conserve that much energy,” Taggersell said.
This was her fifth year attending the national championships, but first winning gold.
“It was the best feeling to be on the gold strip and receive two medals, mine and the coaches medal. Putting the coaches medal around Nancy’s neck was such a great moment,” she said.
After stepping off the gold strip, she called her parents, Scott and Kathleen Taggersell, who were unable to attend the championship, but congratulated her and were excited for her win.
Taggersell estimated 4,000 fencers competed in this year’s championship. She said the competition was divided into categories of gender, the three different weapons of fencing and age, which made it hard to tell exactly how many were in attendance.
 “In the U.S., fencing is not a very popular sport. It’s not like football or baseball. But in Europe, it is huge. It was one of the first four Olympic sports,” Taggersell said.
While she has no definite plans to try out for the Olympics, Taggersell did decide where she would attend college based on the fencing teams available. In the fall, she will begin at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pa., a branch of Temple University, and fence on Temple’s Division I team, ranked sixth in the nation.
Taggersell said she has always wanted to go to school to study art and compete in fencing.
Tyler was one of the few schools where she could find both. She said art is a huge hobby, and plans to receive a BFA from Tyler, but has not decided in what focus.
At Temple, Taggersell will be under the instruction of Coach Nikki Franke, a two-time member of the U.S. Olympic team. Fencing on a team will be a new experience for Taggersell.
“Team fencing is a different set up. It is a relay style bout that goes up to 45 touches. I haven’t had enough experience fencing on a team to compare [to fencing by myself],” Taggersell said.
She said each team has four fencers and an alternate. The first fencer goes up against the other team, and they fence up to five touches. Then the next two players pair up and play up to 10 touches. Taggersell said it gets complicated when one team has a score of five and the other team two. The other team could score eight touches and beat the first team to reach 10. She said team bouts usually go up to 45 touches.
She expects having teammates will be great for a solid support system. In college, the team practices three hours every weekday and has tournaments on the weekends. She said the season in college is about three months long, but training is year round.
At this point, Taggersell said she is taking a short break after the exhaustion of nationals, but will be starting her summer workout regimen for Temple’s fencing team. She said the warm up alone consists of a 35-minute jogging the straights and sprinting the curves on a track.
Next year, she plans on going back to nationals, but said she is waiting to see what direction college fencing will take her.