The spring season is now upon us, but a couple of Dedham High athletes put a bow on their fantastic winter campaigns recently.

Junior track star Amariah Montaque concluded her tremendous close to the year at the Indoor New Balance Nationals on Saturday. Competing near home over at The Track at New Balance in Brighton as a member of the Metro-Cobras Track Club, Montaque ran the longer 60-meter hurdles distance for the first time this season and was not able to advance out of the preliminaries, running 9.25 seconds.

Montaque was on fire this postseason in the 55 hurdles, setting or breaking in the school record in the event in three successive meets, first with an 8.43 to win Division 4 states, then lowering it to 8.36 at the Meet of Champions before blazing to an 8.30 at New Englands.

On March 7, sophomore wrestler Anthony Sateriale wrapped up his sensational season at New Englands in Providence. Sateriale, who won 113-pound individual titles at both Division 3 sectionals and states while helping power the Marauders to team crowns at both meets, went 0-2 and was eliminated on the first day.

Sateriale dropped a tight 6-5 decision to Preston Garland of Mt. Blue (ME) in his opening match and was bounced from the consolation bracket after being pinned in the third period by Treydan Beam of Xavier (CT). He finished the season with a sparkling 45-8 mark, including going 8-0 with six pins and two technical falls at sectionals and states.

He was supposed to be joined by teammate Ryan Talon-Kelly, who was Dedham’s top qualifier after taking third at All-States, but the senior had to withdraw with an illness.

Some other notes as we spring into spring …

Speaking of the wrestling team, when the dust finally settled on the winter on Sunday, Dedham was one of four Tri-Valley League squads to bring home a MIAA state championship.

Medfield girls basketball stated its case for the most dominant team of the winter, regardless of sport or gender. The Warriors rolled through the Div. 2 bracket with ease, dispatching their five opponents by an average of 34.6 points on their way to a perfect 25-0 mark. Medfield’s closest game all year was an 11-point triumph over Div. 1 champ Wachusett.

The other state titles were earned by Hopkinton boys indoor track, who claimed Div. 2, and Medway girls skiing, a co-op program that also includes TVL schools Norton, Holliston and Millis.

Several other teams lifted trophies during their postseason journeys. Medfield boys hockey made it to the Div. 3 state final before falling, while Medway and Millis girls basketball, Westwood boys hockey and Medfield girls hockey all made the final four in their divisions. Dover-Sherborn girls swimming won the South sectional crown.

When March Madness kicks off this week, as usual Massachusetts hoop fans won’t have much to choose from in the way of Bay State squad to cheer for as just one team earned their way into either bracket — the Holy Cross women. But if you are looking for a local rooting interest, you might want to adopt the Kentucky ladies.

Dedham’s own Kaelyn Carroll is a freshman on the 23-10 Wildcats, who received the No. 5 seed in the Fort Worth regional. Carroll, a Tabor Academy product, is a key member of Kentucky’s rotation, often as one of the first players off the bench. The 6-foot-3 guard has played in 31 games this season for the Wildcats, averaging 3.6 points per contest and ranking third on the team in 3-pointers with 29.

The Wildcats open play on Saturday against No. 12 James Madison in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Earlier this month, the area lost a true old school newspaper man when legendary cartoonist Eddie Germano passed away at the age of 101. And I lost a friend.

Germano, whose career spanned over seven decades, spent many years drawing sports cartoons of local athletes for the and the iterations that followed, hundreds of them hailing for Dedham.

His cartoons were artistic treasures found in our local pages each week — technically brilliant but with a creative flair and an occasional dash of humor dished out by Phil Phan, a character of his creation that looked suspiciously like Eddie himself. His hand remained rock steady well into his 90s. I have a framed original piece he did for myself and former Transcript sports editor Michael Hurley and I hanging in my house.

But his enduring work is not what I will remember most about Eddie. What I will miss is his visits to the office, in which he would regale my co-workers and I with tales of drawing Ted Williams and hanging out with Johnny Pesky, asking us for input in filling out his Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, or just letting us know how much better it was back in the day.

It was, Eddie. Yes it was.