UA Campus Recreation and a community of campus partners hosted “Meet Me at the Rec” for its fourth year in a row on Monday night.

The event was anticipated to host 1,000 students, according to Michele Schwitzky, senior assistant director in Outreach at Campus Recreation.

The goal of the event was to introduce students to several campus programs, as well as to local businesses, Schwitzky said.

The event kicked off with a Pride of Arizona performance. Chair massages also began at 6 p.m. when the event started, and students were able to receive free massages up until 8 p.m.

Fraternities, sororities and Residence Life competed for how many of their students showed up to the event. Each student involved with either organization signed their name on a board at a check-in table. Different chapters within fraternities competed against each other, as did sorority chapters and residence halls on campus.

Whichever fraternity chapter had the most people show up to the event received a discount to sign up for an intramural sports team. The winning sorority and residence hall received a free Fitness 2U class.

Several booths, ranging from intramural sports to clubs to campus organizations and even to local businesses, lined the William David Sitton Field. Some of the more popular booths during the evening were Tucson Tamale Company, Eegee’s and Blue Bell Ice Cream.

Intramural sports teams and clubs took advantage of this event to recruit new members. The UA Quidditch team, which recently became recognized as a club this semester, wants to expand. By being a club, it’s easier to get the word out about the team, said ISTA junior Jack Bass, captain of the team.

“We’re looking to get just as many new people as we can today,” Bass said.

The women’s intramural rugby team is also looking to recruit some new players.

“It takes 15 people to put on a field and we have 16 right now,” said Gabby Grinslade, a sophomore studying microbiology and biochemistry.

Grinslade said they spend the entire fall semester learning the game of rugby and compete in the spring.

The men’s lacrosse team already gained a bulk of members this semester.

“We have 37 guys coming in,” physiology senior Zach Johnson said.

Still, the team had a booth last night to find people who were interested in joining.

“We always find guys who didn’t know about the team, but joined and ended up being the star of the team,” Johnson said.

Several freshmen were at the event last night and quickly learned all the involvement opportunities the university offers.

Undeclared freshman Katelyn Fernandez said the best part of the night was “seeing all the different parts of the UA.”

“I didn’t know half this stuff was here,” Fernandez said.

The event wasn’t limited to sports-related organizations. Veggie Cats, a club that’s in the process of getting started with the help of Healthy You Network, had an informational stand last night with the idea of promoting the importance of a healthy lifestyle to students. The stand featured animal-free snacks, such as cookies and bananas.

Chris Zatarain, a sophomore studying performance and Italian, is in charge of getting this club started.

“[With] this club specifically, I want to focus on the health aspect,” Zatarain said.

Other activities during the night, aside from intramural sports and clubs, were fitness demos, such as Zumba, pilates, Krav Maga, slacklining, a jousting inflatable and raffle tickets.

“This [was] way bigger than last year,” Schwitzky said, “but we hope it just keeps growing.”

Follow Meghan Fernandez @MeghanFernandez