Last year’s Rio Rico High 4x800-meter relay team was second to one.

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This year, it was second to none.

Coming from a sixth-seed slot �” mainly because a different team ran an 8 minute, 29.22-second performance at regionals �” the quartet of Omar Hernandez, Alejandro Valencia, Matt Diaz and Jose Luis Muñoz blew away the field Saturday and won the 2009 state title with a personal-, season- and school-best 7:58.26 at Mesa Community College.

Higley, the next best team, came in more than 16 seconds later.

“It feels good,” said Muñoz, a junior. “We just have a really strong bond because we ran cross-country together.”

For Hernandez, a senior, it capped off a perfect weekend that began with his graduation Friday night.

“He graduated yesterday, so it was a little present for him,” said Valencia, a sophomore. “We wanted to end his high school career with something memorable.”

“We’re just all happy,” added Hernandez. “It was a nice present. I love these guys.”

The rest of the field sure didn’t, because the Hawks won the race from nearly wire to wire �” thanks, in large part, to their teamwork.

“We work on handoffs a lot, and it paid off,” Hernandez said. “You could see in the first leg, we were pretty much neck and neck, but after that first handoff, we just had a good lead.”

And the Hawks kept it, giving them reason to walk away from MCC with a stronger bond then when they got there.

“We’re more than friends,” Valencia said. “We’re like brothers.”

Muñoz also took second in the 3,200-meter (9:17.73), flowed by Valencia (9:39.82) in seventh and Hernandez in 12th (10:01.49).

For the Lady Hawks’ Jessica Batriz, Erika Parra, Aeoleone Bristow and Gladymar Echeverria took ninth in the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 4:16.19.

Bristow also took ninth in the 1,600-meter run (5:18.48), and teammate Danielle Jones took eleventh in the 800 (2:31.69).

As a team, the Hawks took eight place overall in the state (4A-II) with 33 points.

The Lady Hawks took the 24th slot with six points.

For Nogales, the girls’ team took 13th overall (4A-I) with 19 points, and the boys took 24th with 9.5 points.

Eight of those points came by way of Victor Mendoza, who took second only to Peoria’s Jamal Miles in the 400-meter dash. Mendoza, a senior in his first year on the track, finished in 49.94 seconds.

“It feels good,” he said. “(Running track) just didn’t catch my attention before, but this year it did. I’m glad.”

None of the other Apaches fared quite as well as Mendoza.

Adelice Legleu took sixth in the 800-meter run (2:25.82), Olivia Valencia took seventh in the shot put (31 feet, 6 inches), and due to a checking in mix-up, Zahira Jimenez didn’t compete in the 1,600.

“I’m disappointed in myself,” said Valencia, a junior. “I could have done better.”

For the NHS boys, Jose Rojas took 12th in the state in the discus (133-2).