The Polson Pirates, to no one’s surprise, are still loaded.

And watch out for the Columbia Falls boys.

That’s the early take for this Northwest A golf season, which began with a bang on Aug. 15 when the Pirates, Laurel, Billings Central and Hamilton played the Old Works Challenge.

Laurel’s boys might have given the Pirates a rude welcome — the Locomotives won with 292 strikes to 327 for Polson, and then won a Ryder Cup-like Purple and Gold challenge between the schools the next day — but it was early. And Polson’s No. 1 golfer, Carson Hupka, was off competing at a PNGA event.

Still, fifth-year Polson coach Cameron Milton said, “The defending state champions (Laurel) put it on us pretty good. The boys took it on the chin both of those days.”

The Lady Pirates, meanwhile, won decisively both days and seem poised to repeat as State A champs.

Here’s a look at the Northwest golf teams’ prospects.

Boys

Polson lost nobody off last year’s team that finished seven strokes behind Laurel at the State A meet. Hupka, who likewise was runner-up to Livingston’s Aubrey Kelley for medalist, leads the way.

After making the Round of 32 (and match play) at the PGNA event, Hupka shot 75 Friday to win medalist honors at the Browning Invitational held at windy Marias Valley G&CC in Shelby.

Libby’s Reece Malyevac was next at 77 and Polson saw Christian Lund (78) and Torrin Ellis (79) take third and fifth. Add in Hunter Emerson, who shot a 72 at Old Works, and Espn Fisher and it’s a tight five that won the team title by 34 strokes over Columbia Falls (Havre and Whitefish finished 3-4) in Shelby.

“Christian Lund has shown the most improvement over the summer,” Milton noted. “I’d say he is T-2 with Hunter Emerson.”

Whitefish was decimated by the graduation of Billy Smith, Johnny Nix and Matthew Peschel, leaving senior Riley Brown — he just missed All-State honors last fall — as the clear leader.

“He is an All-State level golfer for us, and then everybody else is pretty much even,” third-year Bulldogs coach Tait Rocksund said. “Really on both sides the goal is to get these golfers some tournament reps.”

The coach likes the looks of sophomore Aiden Rickels and juniors Christian Schwaderer and Otto Klein, and notes junior Elijah Adams-Griffin will compete in golf and soccer this fall.

“But we’re definitely younger,” he said. “We shot 298 or something last year (at Shelby). This year we were at 364 with 40-mile per hour winds.”

Bigfork, up in Class A after several years in Class B, has a leader in Colin Wade — all he did this past May 17 was win State B medalist honors.

Columbia Falls, meanwhile, saw Winslow Peters, Connor Presnell, Tucker Gonzalez and Willie Pickard shoot solidly in Shelby.

“Winslow Peters and Connor Presnell — they’ve got some game, those two,” Rocksund said..

The top four teams in both the Western and Eastern Divisionals advance to the State A Meet Sept. 29-30 in Sidney.

The Pirates will surely set sail.

“These five took third their sophomore year, second their junior year,” Milton said. “It’s kind of you know, do it or bust. We’ll try to see if we can catch Laurel, which has been such a dominant program for so long. That’s what we’re after.”

Girls

This year’s Western A Divisional is at Whitefish Lake Golf Course Sept. 21, and the Whitefish Invitational on Aug. 29 will bring most if not all 13 teams in the division up as well.

All of the girls teams, it seems, will be chasing Polson, which won the Browning Invitational by 28 strokes behind seniors Ashley Maki (81), Kylee Siefert (93) and Claire Konen (98) plus junior Kila Cannon.

Frenchtown has returning State A medalist Katie Lewis leading a solid team, but the Pirates have the same four that carried them to last year’s team championship.

“They kind of just have to do what they do,” said Milton, who saw Maki fight through the Shelby winds for an 81 Friday (Lewis shot 74). “It will be interesting to see if we have a bump in the road, or a school shows up with a freshman we don’t know anything about.”

The Bigfork Vals have a solid No. 1 golfer in Keni Wade — who like her brother was State B medalist in May — and some depth in Ava Hall.

Whitefish didn’t field a full girls team last season but will this fall — which pleases Rocksund.

“I think the exciting thing is we have 10 girls out and a lot of them are young, but we have some good young talent,” he said.

Freshman Ryhlee Scott shot a 93 in Shelby; Ava Zignego and Leia Brennan were in the top 14, and freshman Karlee Brown will play Monday and Tuesday when Whitefish (and Libby and Polson) competes in the Corvallis Invitational.

Browning Invitational

Friday, Aug. 18

Marias Valley G&CC, Shelby

BOYS

Team scores — Polson 314, Columbia Falls 348, Havre 363, Whitefish 364, Ronan 376, Frenchtown 390, Libby 454, Bigfork 480.

Individual Top 15 — 1, Carson Hupka, Polson, 75; 2, Reece Malyuwac, Libby, 77; 3, Christian Lund, Polson, 78; 4, Riley Brown, Whitefish, 79; 5, Torrin Ellis, Polson, 79; 6, Winslow peters, Columbia FAlls, 82; 7, Hunter Emerson, Polson, 82; 8, Colin Wade, Bigfork, 83; 9, Connor Presnell, Columbia Falls, 84; 10, Espn Fisher, Polson, 85; 11, Matt Huse, Havre, 85; 12, Oliver Rowe, Ronan, 85; 13, Tucker Gonzales, Columbia Falls, 88; 14, Brayden Garr, Frenchtown, 89; 15, Colter Cornwell, Ronan, 90; 16, Carter Spangler, havre, 90.

GIRLS

Team scores — Polson 375, Havre 403, Bigfork 429, Frenchtown 440, Browning 490.

Individual Top 15 — 1, Katie Lewis, Frenchtown, 74; 2, Ashley Maki, Polson, 81; 3, Keni Wade, Bigfork, 81; 4, Shea Reber, Havre, 90; 5, Rhylee Scott, Whitefish, 93; 6, Kylee Seifert, Polson, 93; 7, Claire Konen, Polson 98; 8, Brenna Hanson, 99; 9, Teirra Parker, Havre, 100; 10, Bridget Anderson, Frenchtown, 102; 11, Kila Cannon, Polson, 103; 12, Ava Zygnego, Whitefish, 103; 13, Ava Hall, Bigfork, 103; 14, Leia Brennan, Whitefish, 105; 15, Brooke Blue, Browning, 106.

Old Works Challenge

Aug. 15, Anaconda

BOYS

Laurel (292) — Cameron Hackman 69, Sam Norman 66, Royce Taylor 80, Kyle Kennah 81, Brady McCollum 77.

Polson (327) — Hunter Emerson 72, Christian Lund 81, Torrin Ellis 87, Espn Fisher 87, Cole Cross 91.

Billings Central (352) — Matthew Ramshaw 95, Caleb Fornshell 85, Ethan Miller 85, David Ramshaw 90, Matteo Harris 92.

Hamilton (352) — Tyce O’Connell 82, Cole Dickemore 88, Josh Bender 81, Hunter Harnness 101, Torean Carroll 113.

GIRLS

Polson (372) — Ashley Maki 82, Kylee Seifert 89, Iila Cannon 105, Clare Konen 96.

Billings Central (408) — Jori Haugen 93, Anna Prill 90, Kaitlin Ferris 109, Kiya Ford 116.

Hamilton (399) — Emma Hollingsworth 90, Brooklyn Brown 98, Bryn Cianflone 104, Cameron Burnett 107, Heather Beerman 115.

Laurel (no score) — Alivia Webinger 83, Alyssa Robertus 99, Alivia Kuhr 107.