{"id":158669,"date":"2015-10-29T08:16:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=158669"},"modified":"2015-10-29T08:16:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:16:15","slug":"arthur-frayler-leads-florida-distance-group-in-fran-crippen-tribute-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/arthur-frayler-leads-florida-distance-group-in-fran-crippen-tribute-swim\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Frayler Leads Florida Distance Group In Fran Crippen Tribute Swim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday marked the five-year anniversary of the death of Fran Crippen<\/strong>, the popular open water swimmer who affected the lives of many before his untimely passing in a race in 2010. Many took to social media to honor Crippen, but former teammate Arthur Frayler<\/strong> wanted to do more.<\/p>\n

Frayler and Crippen are alumni of Germantown Academy and Richard Shoulberg\u2019s<\/strong> intense training program. Frayler was viewed as a successor of sorts to Crippen, making that official in his senior year of high school by taking down Crippen\u2019s school record in the 500 freestyle with a 4:17.96. Frayler is now a junior at the University of Florida, where he has been one of the school\u2019s top distance swimmers since his arrival there.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Frayler came up with a special \u201cFran Crippen Memorial Set\u201d that would honor Crippen\u2019s hardworking mentality while also challenging his fellow Florida distance swimmers. The goal: 105×100-yard swims on a 1:00 interval.<\/p>\n

Frayler enlisted teammates Ben Lawless, Max Bungert, Mitch D’Arrigo, Justin Kaisrlik, Alejandro Gomez<\/strong> and Blake Manganiello<\/strong> for the set, with the rest of the Gator squad eventually cheering them on from the side of the pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to do that particular workout because at Germantown we always loved doing sets of 100s,\u201d Frayler said. \u201cI did them a lot with Fran when we trained together, along with many other sets. In my mind, I knew 100s were what I wanted to do on that Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 86th repeat, Frayler and Manganiello were the only ones who hadn\u2019t stopped for a break. After number 87, Manganiello tapped out. Frayler wasn\u2019t deterred and continued to make the interval as others rejoined the set. Everything was going so well that Frayler decided to do five more, and stopped at 110. As you can see at the end of the video below, Frayler was overjoyed at completing the set.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to honor Fran with a set like that feels great,\u201d Frayler said. \u201cFor me though it wasn’t about making 110 of them. It was about pushing myself as much as possible the way Fran always did. It worked out to be a very good set for me, but the part I’m most proud about is how my teammates stepped up and did the challenge with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about Fran everyday along with many other people in the swimming community. I think he would have enjoyed what happened on deck for that set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Gators\u2019 \u201cFran Crippen Memorial Set\u201d Video<\/h2>\n