As the 26th hour came to a close, the tiles lined up and the number flashed onstage.

The record-breaking total: $451,144.03, surpassing last year’s by more than $40,000.

Tears and cheers of joy erupted from the crowd. Dance Marathon participants, exhausted, embraced one another in what had been a shared experience among hundreds of people.

At 1 p.m., dancers sat down for the first time in more than a day with a collective sigh of relief. A total of 837 dancers had completed the full 26 hours; hundreds more participated in three-hour shifts as moralers throughout the day and night.

Emotional moments preceded the reveal of the final total. Jake Glaser, whose mother Elizabeth is the namesake of the nonprofit Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, addressed the crowd before the final total was revealed.

“This is the most people I’ve seen in this room,” Glaser said, tears in his eyes. “My mother was a big fan of dancing. … I want to thank everyone here for embodying that.”

“There are so many lives you are changing today,” he said.

Bank of the West, one of the event’s sponsors, presented organizers with a $25,000 check. Over the past 11 years, Dance Marathon at UCLA has raised more than $3 million to support efforts to combat pediatric AIDS.

Compiled by Jillian Beck, Naheed Rajwani and Devin Kelly, Bruin senior staff.