Cal’s Ryan Murphy won the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke Monday night, making it the sixth straight Olympics in which an American male won a backstroking event.

Murphy outpaced an impressive field, finishing in a time of 51.97 to set an Olympic record in the event. Murphy, a Cal senior, was almost a half-second ahead of China’s Xu Jiayu, who came in with a time of 52.31 to take silver. They were joined on the podium by Murphy’s American teammate, David Plummer, who finished in 52.40.

Murphy’s time stacks up with the best ever in the race, coming up just .03 seconds short of Aaron Peirsol’s world record time from 2009.

Murphy, a backstroking specialist who has won the last two Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year awards, will get a chance to earn a second medal Thursday in the 200-meter backstroke. He may be joined in the final field by his former Cal teammate, Jacob Pebley. Murphy’s main challenger in that event is likely to be Australia’s Mitch Larkin, the reigning World Champion in the event.

Contact Hooman Yazdanian at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @hoomanyazdanian