As the election commission burst into a more than half-filled Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center earlier this morning, the dancing, laughing crowd looked to the commissioners to ease the anticipation of awaiting Penn State's next undergraduate student leaders.

After yesterday's close Undergraduate Student Government vote, Justin Zartman and Amanda Hudnall will have an opportunity to put "students first" as the new USG president and vice president.

Zartman/Hudnall squeezed past the five other registered tickets to win the election with 1,289 of the 5,674 votes. They beat the second place ticket, Terry Burke, by a mere 90 votes.

Zartman and Hudnall grabbed each other, jumping up and down as students gathered around them to congratulate and join in a group hug, when they heard the announcement early this morning in the results celebration, sponsored by the Blue and White society.

"This is absolutely incredible," Zartman screamed throwing his head back.

"This is surreal," yelled Hudnall.

Zartman said because the election was so closely contested, he felt prided that there was such a great turnout with students voting.

"There were a lot of good ideas out there and I think that's awesome," Zartman said.

The students and candidates gathered around the stage and applauded as their new student leaders took the stage.

As Zartman and Hudnall ran up to the stage to accept their new positions, they stopped to congratulate each other with a big hug.

"First of all, this has been an amazing two hours — an amazing two and a half weeks," Zartman said.

"We just want to thank all of our campaign workers and supporters," Hudnall said. "We've had a blast."

Zartman said he was happy with the closeness of the election.

"We're supposed to be here to work together for the students, and we will do that," an emotional Zartman said.

Although Zartman said the wait for the decision made them nervous, "right now, it's all emotions."

Burke and Gerald, in a close second place spot, said, "We are happy just to have run because we conducted a good campaign that was sincere. It was very amazing that we came that close with no USG experience," said Burke.

"There's a lot of controversy surrounding them, but we wish them the best," Burke said of Zartman and Hudnall.

The ticket that came in third, John Linde and Nathan Murphy, humbly accepted the results.

"We are happy with the way we finished," Linde said.

"I'm glad for Justin," he said. "The experience was just so positive."

Katelyn Belyus and Tom Murtaugh, who campaigned under their first names in accordance with their platform goal of making USG more accessible to students Belyus said, "Regardless of who won, there are issues that we need to see addressed."

Murtaugh focused on the total experience of campaigning.

"Regardless, it was a great experience. We met a lot of great people. It was an awesome time," Murtaugh said.

Robert Michaels and Claudia Lum came in second to last and were not as enthusiastic with the result.

Lum called them "the appointed ticket" because she said the current USG administration supported them. "We'll see whether they come through with their campaign promises."

Michaels added, "We're still pulling for what we promised in our platform" due to Lum's victory in yesterday's town senate race.

Matt Rokita and Sushil Nanavati took their defeat graciously.

"We all had the same goal in mind with helping the students, and I'm sure the new administration will follow that goal," Sushil Nanavanti said.

Collegian staff writers Lauren Butler, Jeremy R. Cooke , Danielle Grote , Alison C. Kistler , Melinda Long , Bridget McCrory and Erica Zarra .