Seasons change. Children grow older and move on. St. Aloysius’ reign as the best team in Mississippi Class 1A golf, however, is forever.

Freshman Channing Curtis and sophomore Gabriel Riveros finished second and fourth, respectively, in the individual standings to lead St. Al to its fourth consecutive Class 1A team state championship Thursday at Clear Creek Golf Course.

It’s St. Al’s seventh state championship in eight years.

“It’s great to see it keep going,” said St. Al senior Sam Andrews. “We’re lucky to have people that are interested in playing, and they all put their talents together. Everything has come together for it to happen. We’ve been lucky. We were today.”

The Flashes finished the two-day tournament with a team score of 674. That was five shots better than Ingomar, which cut its deficit in half in the second round but couldn’t quite get over the hump.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Riveros said. “Especially this year is probably the coolest. We had a lot of young guys and pulled it out.”

Sacred Heart had the medalist, Hunter Hammett, and totaled 711 strokes as a team to finish third.

Hammett used a combination of steady play and a sloppy back nine by Curtis to win the individual title.

Hammett entered the final round with a three-shot lead on Curtis, but made double bogey on the third hole and bogeyed the 11th. That allowed Curtis to pull even heading to the 13th tee, and that’s when the fortunes of both golfers changed.

Curtis bogeyed five of his last six holes, with a par on No. 16, and finished his second round with a 79. He shot 153 for the tournament.

Hammett birdied Nos. 15 and 16, shot a 73 on Thursday and 144 for the tournament, and walked off the course with a harder-than-it-looked nine-shot margin of victory.

“I was trying to catch him all day. I got to even with him, then hit a couple of really bad shots and it threw me off a little bit,” Curtis said. “He made a couple of birdies, and there wasn’t any catching him after that. My short game went to the gutters. I couldn’t putt at all.”

Vardaman’s Brandon Walker and Salem’s Jason Byrd finished in a tie for third place, at 156, and Riveros was fourth at 158 after shooting 80 in the final round.

Blake Hudson (92 on Thursday), Andrews (93) and Brandon Teller (102) rounded out St. Al’s fivesome. The top four scores for each team in each round make up the team score.

This was considered a rebuilding year for St. Al. Riveros, Curtis and Andrews all played in last year’s state tournament, and Hudson was on the team, but all of the players said the team’s game as a whole felt a step off.

“We lost a few players from last year, and the scores just weren’t what they were last year, so it didn’t leave us much breathing room,” Andrews said.

The good thing about rebuilding, however, is that there’s always room for improvement. Andrews and Hudson are seniors, but Riveros, Curtis and the freshman Teller all seem to have plenty of solid golf ahead of them.

They also promised to recruit a few golf-playing friends to the team that should keep St. Al’s dynasty going for a while longer.

“I think we can do it again next year,” Riveros said. “Next year might be harder because two of our starters are graduating. This summer, me and Channing are going to help out a bunch of guys to get them ready.”