Olympics: U.S. wins men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay

July 26 (UPI) -- At the Tokyo Aquatic Center on Monday, the United States won gold in the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay while U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky took home silver in the women's 400-meter freestyle.

In the four medal rounds in the pool on Monday morning during the Summer Olympic Games in Japan, the Americans won a gold and a silver while failing to reach the winners' podium in two other opportunities.

The U.S. men's team, who won the 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, edged out Italy and Australia, who finished second and third respectively, for top spot with a time of 3 minutes, 8.97 seconds, which is 0.73 second shy of beating the Olympic record set by Team USA in China in 2008.

Caeleb Dressel, 24, got Team USA off to a quick start, putting it at the head of the pack, a position the squad never lost throughout the race, leaving Italy, Australia and Canada to battle it out for the final two medals.

Meanwhile, Ledecky, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, including in the women's 400-meter freestyle in 2016, failed to repeat a first-place finish earlier Monday.

Ledecky, 24, led for the first 300 meters of the race, during which she watched her commanding start be chipped away by Australia's Ariarne Titmus, 20, who would take over first after the final turn, which the U.S. swimmer was never able to regain.

Titmus finished with a time of 3 minutes, 56.69 seconds, just short of Ledecky's record of 3 minutes, 56.46 seconds set in Rio.

Team USA failed to gain a medal in the other two swimming finals Monday -- the women's 100-meter butterfly and the men's 50-meter breast stroke.

Torri Huske, 18, finished fourth in the women's event a hair behind Australia's Emma McKeon, 27, in an event that saw Maggie MacNeil, 21, win Canada's first gold of the games with a time of 55.59 seconds. China's Yufei Zhang, 23, took second.

In the men's 50-meter breaststroke, Michael Andrew, 22, finished fourth by 1.47 seconds behind favorite and defending gold-medal winner Adam Peaty, 26, of Britain, who took the top spot. Arno Kamminga, 25, of the Netherlands and Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi, 21, took silver and bronze, respectively.