The Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon just keeps breaking records. The newest — the world's largest hug.

The record was set today in Rec Hall, not only one time, but twice, when about 1,271 people came together and well, hugged.

"We're doing something that has never been done in the recorded history of the world. We're about to break a Guinness world record of the world's largest hug right here on the floor of Rec Hall," said Brian Waksmunski, a morale captain.

In the midst of all the dancing, laughing, water gun-squirting, streamer-flying, balloon-bouncing dance marathon, after a process that took only about 20 minutes to organize, a world record was broken.

"Records are made. . .to be broken" was placed high on the large screens above the stage.

The rules for breaking the record were to have one big circle, with arms around the waists and to "hug" for 10 seconds.

Aaron Weyman (sophomore-division of undergraduate studies), a Thon dancer, said, "I came here to dance and to support children with cancer and being a part of a world record just adds to it."

The idea was decided upon back in October, Waksmunski said.

"We were looking for something to do that was fun for the dancers and had good publicity. I checked out the Guinness records to find a record that was feasible to break, the hug was just perfect for that," Waksmunski said.

At that time, the record was 462 people. Then Waksmunski said the record was broken by businesspeople, who at a meeting, decided to break the record.

Before the students and families at Thon broke the record, the original record was 899 people in December 2000.

The number of people needed for the hug wasn't the problem, but organizing the placement was the hard part, Waksmunski said.

He said they had a run-through on Thursday night to practice in Rec Hall with about 500 people. He said it went well.

Waksmunski said he was only allotted 20 minutes to break the record because Thon is planned out almost minute by minute.

"We're part of two world breaking events now, being the world's largest student-run philanthropic event and the world's largest hug," Kahlil Williams (senior-political science) said.

Most students were interested in breaking the record.

"It was cool knowing I was in the biggest hug ever," said Lee Alex Russler (sophomore-human resources and information management).

The record will not be official until after this weekend when the Guinness officials get the facts, but the number was there, and the record was broken.

"Give yourselves a round of applause — you're in the world record book," Waksmunski said.