When Nogales High junior Zahira Jimenez crossed the finish line Saturday, she could barely stand and needed to be held up by state cross country event staff.

Nogales High junior Zahira Jimenez had the lead before the halfway point Saturday. She was trailed by teammate KC Zuniga and defending state champion Christina Price of Sabino. Jimenez won the state title and was followed by Price and Zuniga.

She could hardly breathe and hardly talk.

But she did.

“Oh my God, I was dying,” she said. “I went all the way as fast as I could.”

And her time of 18 minutes, 59.090 seconds on the 3.1-mile Cave Creek Golf Course in Phoenix was fast enough to take the 4A-I individual title from defending state champion Christina Price of Sabino, who finished in 19:12.683.

It was also enough to help the Lady Apaches coast to their first team title in school history.

“You always have to think champion,” said Jimenez, who rebounded from a 13th place finish as a sophomore last season.

In the last two seasons, the Lady Apaches couldn’t break the third place mark at state, but with five of their runners finishing in the top 18 on Saturday, Nogales came home with the top prize after amassing 47 points�”followed by Cave Creek Cactus Shadows’ 88.

Cactus Shadows’ top runner came in fourth, behind Nogales junior KC Zuniga, who crossed in 19:17.887.

“It was just another race,” Zuniga said. “You just have to give it your all. There are no challenges here. We already practiced as much as we can, and I think I did practice hard, so it paid off.”

And, with Lilia Moncada coming in 11th, Dianna Padilla 15th and Esther Estrada 17th, the hard work paid off for the entire team.

“In the team portion, our girls are really dedicated,” Zuniga said. “We always knew if we tried our best, we would do outstanding.”

“It started in June,” Nogales head coach Manny Gatica said. “The girls realized that we had something special. They knew the title was theirs.

“I’m hoping this can come home to Nogales so more girls will join us �- but there are no shortcuts around it,” he added. “It takes a lot of hard work to win something like this.”

On the boys side, led by Jose Valdez’s 18th-place finish in 16:37.081, Nogales took fourth place with 147 points. Catalina Foothills won the team title with 43 points. They were followed by Bradshaw Mountain (110) and Flowing Wells (116).

“That’s the highest I’ve ever taken this team before,” said Gatica in his fifth season with the program. “My first two seasons we got our butts whipped. I guess we just had to take our lumps like anybody else, but we worked at it and proved we can do it.”

They did it behind the slogan: “Dream, believe and achieve,” he added.

It also didn’t hurt that sophomore Josue Rosas took 22nd in 16:44.261. He was followed by Aaron Valdez (31st), Carmelo Moraila (34th) and Rafael Valenzuela (47th).

While Nogales had it’s finest cross country season in school history, state powerhouse Rio Rico High may have dropped a tad below its expectations, finishing without a team title and only one individual title.

That individual title was won for the second season in row by junior Aeoleone Bristow, who finished in 19:22.386 despite tearing her quadriceps last track season.

“I was pretty confident because I was really motivated from my last season,” she said, “but this was a real challenging race today.”

As a team, the Lady Hawks finished third (with 76 points) for the second season in a row after winning the state title in 2007. Page won the team title this season with 72 points and was followed by Flagstaff (75).

“Every year we want to set our goals higher,” Bristow said. “We will get there.”

“They ran a good race,” added coach and Aeoleone’s father Roger Bristow. “We knew it was going to be tough between us (and Page and Flagstaff). We just didn’t get the job done.”

On the boys side, they hope to get their state title back in 2010 after losing it Saturday to Cottonwood Mingus by 11 points.

Flagstaff Sinagua senior Brian Shrader won with a course record 15:15.8, but was followed by Rio Rico’s Jose Luiz Muñoz, who finished in 15:59.7.

Last season, Muñoz took fourth individually, and was happy to stay competitive with the nationally ranked Shrader.

“It’s nice to go out there and compete with one of the best in the nation,” Muñoz said. “It really challenges me, and makes me work that much harder.”

Muñoz was followed by Matt Diaz (7th), Alejandro Valencia (9th), Robert Contreras (25th) and Michael Faircloth (32nd).

“Jose did a very gutsy thing to go after Shrader,” Roger Bristow said. “He ran with him for a mile or so, and that kid’s sixth in the nation for a reason. He’s tough. Jose didn’t beat him but if he didn’t go after that kid, he wouldn’t have gotten where he was.”