Despite its best efforts, UF came up short in an attempt to break a world record Friday afternoon.
The Inter-Residence Hall Association held a water balloon fight on Flavet Field to try to break the Guinness World Record for the number of participants and balloons thrown in a single water balloon fight.
The record stands at 2,849 people in a fight with more than 51,000 water balloons, said Phillip Sussman, UF sophomore and co-sports director of the Inter-Residence Hall Association.
Xbox set the record in Australia in April 2006.
On Friday, participants tossed 55,584 balloons, or 4,500 more than the current record, Sussman said.
But the event drew 2,517 participants, about 300 fewer people than Xbox's record.
By Guinness standards, UF had to beat both records in order for either of them to count, Sussman said.
Still, the event attracted national attention, as clips of the water balloon fight were featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Saturday.
Although UF couldn't break a world record, it did manage to raise money and awareness for another cause - breast cancer.
October is designated nationally as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and participants were asked to make donations upon arrival to the American Cancer Society.
Sussman said IRHA raised more than $1,600 at the event, and he is still waiting for organizations, including fraternities and sororities, to donate money that they raised internally.
Dressed in a yellow raincoat, Tyler Baras, a UF sophomore, said breaking a world record wasn't his top priority.
While most people at the event didn't realize the organization was raising money for a cause, Baras said that was the only thing on his mind while he threw water-filled balloons.
"I came mostly to support raising money for breast cancer," said Baras, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor.
