BUDAPEST - The podium for the 200-meter backstroke had a decidedly blue and gold feel at the 2017 FINA World Championships as Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy claimed his third medal of the week with silver and United States teammate and fellow Golden Bear Jacob Pebley closed strong for bronze to highlight day six of competition at the Danube Arena.

With Golden Bears in lanes two and five for Friday's final, Cal's backstroke stars looked a safe bet to play major role when it came to adding to Team USA's medal count. But, after 100 meters, it was Russia's Evgeny Rylov who shot out to the early lead with Murphy in second and Pebley sixth.

The Cal men were simply setting up for a back half charge to the wall. Murphy turned in the fastest back half of anyone in the race, covering the final 100 in 58.13 seconds to close the gap between he and Rylov. A few lanes over, Pebley clocked the second-fastest back half, finishing in 58.51 to move through the field. Those efforts put Murphy at the wall second with a time of 1:54.21 and Pebley third in 1:55.06 while Rylov hung on for gold in 1:53.61.

"My strategy was to kind of build through the second 50 and make sure I closed hard," Murphy told NBC Sports. "I came up a little bit short tonight but I think this is a good building block for moving forward. And, it's always awesome when you can have two Americans on the podium. That's always great."

Murphy adds Friday's medal to gold in the 400 mixed medley relay and bronze in the 100 back while Pebley earned a medal in his lone event at the FINA World Championships.

"The time I'm not so happy about but that's close to the finish we've been planning for all year," Pebley said. "Just to get on the podium, I didn't do that last summer and I didn't advance through prelims, semis and finals that well last year so I'm really proud of that progress I've made."

Two more Cal men were also in action Friday with Nathan Adrian competing in the 50 free and Zheng Wen Quah taking on the 100 fly. Adrian tied for ninth in the prelims to move to the semifinals but a 10th-place finish in the evening session left him as an alternate for Saturday's final. Quah found himself in the same position earlier in the day, placing 18th to just miss the semis.

Friday's results pushed the medal count to six for Cal men's swimmers in Budapest. Murphy leads the way with three, Adrian owns two and Pebley rounds out the list with one. Adrian should get another chance to add to that total on Saturday as Team USA competes in the 400 mixed free relay. And, a pair of Bears will take part in the prelims of the 50 back as Quah returns to action for Singapore and Guy Barnea will compete for his home country of Israel.