RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — Swimmer Abbey Weitzeil of Saugus in Southern California on Saturday won a silver medal as part of the women's 400-meter freestyle relay team. Weitzel graduated from high school in 2015 and deferred entering the University of California, Berkeley for a year to train for the Olympics. She'll be a Cal freshman this fall.

In her first Olympic race, Weitzeil swam the second of four legs, with her 52.56-second split the fastest among the Americans and fifth fastest overall. Simone Manuel swam the leadoff leg in 53.36 to give the U.S. a lead of .05 of a second ahead of Australia. Weitzeil's swim increased the U.S. lead to .61 of a second.

Related: Cal Alum Wins Olympic Gold in Swimming Australia took the lead when Bronte Campbell swam the third leg in 52.15. Her older sister Cate swam the final leg in 51.97, to give Australia the victory in a world-record time of three minutes, 30.65 seconds. The U.S. was second in 3:31.89, an American record, breaking the previous record of 3:32.31 set in the 2013 FINA World Championships. Dana Vollmer swam the third leg in 53.18 and Katie Ledecky the final leg in 52.79. Canada was third in 3:32.89.

Related: Olympic Silver For San Francisco Native, Stanford Student "We all raced as hard as we could," Vollmer said. "I'm really proud of everyone on this team to go faster than any American (relay) has." The 19-year-old Weitzeil is next scheduled to compete in Wednesday's 100 freestyle.

Weitzeil graduated from Saugus High School in 2015 and deferred entering the University of California, Berkeley for a year to train for the Olympics. She earned a spot on the Olympic team by winning the 100 freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She won the 50 freestyle in the trials two days later.