KAZAN, Russia – With a team comprised of three Golden Bears, the United States captured the gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay Sunday to close out the FINA World Championships. The Americans finished in 3:29.93, a mere 0.15 seconds ahead of runner-up Australia in a close race that saw the top five teams separated by less than a second.

Murphy, swimming backstroke, covered his opening 100 meters in 53.05, and after the breaststroke leg by Kevin Cordes of the University of Arizona, the U.S. stood in third place. With a strong butterfly leg of 50.59, Shields pushed the Americans into the lead, and Adrian held on in the freestyle with a 47.41 split.

“I don't even know the times. I don't know what anybody split, really,' Adrian said. “Obviously all four of us did our part, or we wouldn't be on top of the podium. We had four great swimmers on that relay right there, and we needed four good swims. None of us needed to be great, but we had to have four good swims. That's kind of what I thought to myself and what I told the guys before the race. It's a relay team. It's not about any individual performance.”

In the women's 4x100 relay, incoming freshman Kathleen Baker led off in the heats to help the U.S. to the No. 2 seed for finals, while sophomore Noemie Thomas swam the fly leg for the Canadian squad that qualified sixth. In addition, recent grads Stephanie Au and Camille Chang were in the water for Hong Kong but the team did not advance. In the final, the U.S. foursome, with Missy Franklin opening in back, finished fourth and Canada, which did not have Thomas in the race, placed sixth.

With the meet now concluded, Cal swimmers are coming home with 18 medals – nine gold, six silver and three bronze. The total count is:

• Missy Franklin, USA (5) – 4x100m free relay bronze; 200m free bronze; 4x200m free relay gold; 200m back silver; mixed 4x100m free relay gold
• Nathan Adrian, USA (3) – 50m free silver; mixed 4x100m free relay gold; men's 4x100m medley relay gold
• Lauren Boyle, New Zealand (2)– 1500m free silver; 800m free silver
• Katie McLaughlin, USA (2) – mixed 4x100m relay silver; 4x200m free relay gold
• Ryan Murphy, USA (2) – mixed 4x100m medley relay silver; men's 4x100m medley relay gold
• Abbey Weitzeil, USA (2) – 4x100m free relay bronze; mixed 4x100m free relay gold
• Cierra Runge, USA (1) – 4x200m free relay gold
• Tom Shields, USA (1) - men's 4x100m medley relay gold