A sigh of relief could be heard around the room from Tom Plagge, junior in computer engineering, and Chris Benson, junior in animal science, as Inter-Residence Hall Association President David Sims announced they had won the election for IRHA president and vice president Thursday evening.

In a run-off election, Plagge and Benson received 61.7 percent of the vote and won the IRHA executive positions. Lucas Howell, junior in political science, and Aaron Schmidt, senior in computer engineering, finished with 38.3 percent.

A run-off election was held Thursday because the three slates that were originally in the race didn’t capture a majority. In Tuesday’s election, Howell and Schmidt received 43.4 percent of the vote, and Plagge and Benson received 29.2 percent of the vote.

The slate of Jeff Greiner, sophomore in history, and Paul Duncan, sophomore in transportation and logistics, came in third in Tuesday’s election, garnering 23.2 percent of the vote.

Almost 700 students voted in the run-off election.

“We’re really happy about the turnout,” Plagge said. “We weren’t expecting the numbers that we got.”

Benson added that he’d “like to thank all the people that supported us and helped with the campaign.”

In Tuesday’s election, Howell and Schmidt held the lead among residence hall students, but neither slate was able to pull off a majority. Sims called for the run-off elections Tuesday night after the results were tallied.

“I was very impressed by the caliber of each slate that performed on this run-off election,” Sims said. “The Election Committee was ready for the run-off elections because we knew how good each slate was.”

After the results were announced, Howell said he was disappointed with the loss and that he and Schmidt were singled out by parliament members during the debates because neither had served on IRHA before.

“All throughout the elections, I felt we were enemy No. 1. The parliament kept asking that since I was [a resident assistant] if I could represent the students,” Howell said. “In the first election, I thought we showed that we could, but I wish we could’ve had the support the second time around.”

Duncan, sophomore in transportation and logistics, said he was satisfied with the way the elections turned out. “I felt it was best to go with someone with IRHA experience,” Duncan said.