In the closest Marquette Student Government President/Executive Vice President election in four years, the campaign team of Brock Banks and Sara Soriano nudged out Sara Stellpflug and Dan Guenther for MUSG's top two spots, MUSG Elections Coordinator Catherine Spaulding announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Banks, a College of Arts & Sciences junior, and Soriano, a College of Arts & Sciences sophomore, garnered 52.7 percent of the vote. Stellpflug, a College of Arts & Sciences junior, and Guenther, a College of Business Administration junior, received 47.3 percent of votes cast. The margin of victory was 131 votes.

According to Spaulding, the election generated the highest voter turnout in recent history, with 2,502 students – 35.2 percent of eligible voters – casting ballots. This marks a 6.7 percentage point increase from last year's turnout.

Soriano said she and Banks would work right away to build on this increased interest from the student body.

"It's awesome that the voting turnout was record-breaking," she said. "Picking up from there, we hope to keep those students involved."

Banks said he and Soriano would start working immediately on getting more student advocates on All-University Committees.

He also said he wanted to see the Pick-a-Prof Web site up and running by the end of this school year.

With Banks and Sorino's inauguration taking place Friday, outgoing MUSG President Dan Calandriello, a College of Business Administration senior, said he feels confident in their leadership abilities.

Stellpflug and Guenther said they were proud of their campaign and the whole election process itself, which was the first in five years in which no elections rules violation complaints were filed.

"We made sure to keep positive, and I think the fact that there were no violations showed that," Stellpflug said.

Guenther said he and Stellpflug were excited for the future of MUSG.

"We're not giving up on contributing to Marquette and its success," he said.

At the press conference, Spaulding also annouced the three finalists for senior speaker. The names of Sarah Cotton, Timothy Kummer and Conor Sweeney will be forwarded to a selection committee, which will review their proposed speeches and make a recommendation to University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild.

Because of incorrect information provided by MUSG, an earlier version of this story said the election was the closest in five years. According to MUSG adviser Jon Dooley, the correct number of years is four.