HRT -Hormone Replacement Therapy in Tappan, NY.

GUILDERLAND CENTER – George Gaine provided Sean Berrigan and Jack Maloney a proper salute in the final minute of play, subbing for the accomplished seniors and greeting each on the sideline with a heartfelt embrace.

“No tears,” the longtime Tappan Zee coach urged. "All smiles."

The finality of the moment did eventually catch up with the Dutchmen, knowing this group will never share a bus ride or locker room again. A magical season came to an end Saturday with a 59-55 loss to Albany Academy in a New York State Federation Tournament Class A semifinal at Guilderland High School.

NYSPHSAA champions:Tappan Zee puts the whammy on Irondequoit, locks up a state title

Last week:Tappan Zee hounds New Hartford, advances to state Class A championship

Tappan Zee won a NYSPHSAA title a week ago, leaning heavily on the starting five who played the entire postseason with minimal rest. The legs were noticeably heavier, but the Dutchmen were as competitive as ever. It was a two-possession game until the final minutes, but timely shots were not falling.

Just one 3 fell in the first three quarters of play.

“I’m going to remember how far we went,” senior point guard Sean Berrigan said. “That was the best part, having five or six months together with these guys. Winning a state title will stay with us forever. This is something that doesn’t happen to a lot of people, so I’ll remember this.”

What it means

Tappan Zee hadn’t faced a team this athletic, this big or this deep all season. Albany Academy was up 18-10 with 6:31 to go in the half, but the Dutchmen proved again they had the gumption to compete with any team in the state. Tommy Linehan gave Tappan Zee its first lead of the game, 30-28, hitting three free throws with 5:33 to go in the third quarter. A quick 6-0 run by the Cadets in the closing minutes provided a 53-43 cushion with 1:29 to go.

“We saw them for two days this week,” Gaine said. “I felt it was the right thing to do. They watched some film, got some shots up and we came up here. No excuses. That is an unbelievable team and congrats to Albany Academy, but our guys definitely left a piece of themselves in Glens Falls.”

Player of the game

Robert Chandler was able to exploit his length and explosive ability around the rim, finishing with 15 points.

By the numbers

Albany Academy (15-6): Gianni DiCerbo collected nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. … Cyrus Matia also scored 11. … Arthur Foster had nine points.

Tappan Zee (26-3): Linehan closed out the season with 22 points. … Berrigan had 13 points. … Maloney finished with six points. … Jack Piccione scored five in the second quarter to help Linehan get the Dutchmen back in the game.

They said it

“They were definitely a really good team, athletic, tall,” Berrigan said. “And they made a lot of tough shots. That was a difficult game for us.”

“When we started, we were fighting to win a league championship and one thing led to another,” Gaine said. “The defense got better and better. They started to believe. The rebounding got better and better, and these kids are so gritty.”

Mike Dougherty covers basketball for The Journal News and lohud.com. He can be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @lohudhoopsmbd.

Nerves are something every athlete has dealt with. The great athletes figure out a way to keep them in check.

It's something that Tappan Zee senior Carly Sardo has always had to deal with at a meet and it was no different at Saturday's NYSPHSAA Championships.

"It's so hard to keep them in check because it is such a long meet," Sardo said. "There's a lot of down time in between events. I didn't lose focus. I was able to deliver solid performance and I'm really proud of myself."

The current Section 1 all-around champion kept her nerves in check and was able to defend her NYSPHSAA title on the floor exercise. The last time a Section 1 gymnast defended the state floor exercise title was 2009 when former Mahopac standout Kylie Shields did it.

"I am thrilled," Sardo said. "I felt a ton of pressure because I won last year. I felt like I would let Section One, Tappan Zee and myself down, if I didn't deliver another title. I tried to not let that get to me but it was hard. I could not be happier with the outcome."

Not only did she defend her title, Sardo finished fourth in the all-around (37.4), fourth on the balance beam (9.450), and fifth on the vault (9.450).

Gymnastics: Tappan Zee's Carly Sardo wins three more titles at Section 1 championships

Gymnastics: Tappan Zee's Carly Sardo wins a floor exercise at state

Section 11's Hannah Hughes won the all-around scored a 38.2.

"I was so happy about my floor, beam and vault scores," Sardo said. "Floor is my favorite event to compete but I think I grew as a competitor on bean and vault this year. I'm thrilled I placed fourth in the all around and improved when compared to placing fifth last year."

Top five finish as a team for Section 1

"Iron sharpens Iron"

As an athlete, you always try to measure yourself against the best and Section 1 had the opportunity to do so Saturday at Kenmore West High School.

At the meet, Section 1 had the opportunity to travel around the four different apparatus in the sport with Section 3, the defending NYSPHSAA team champions.

"Travelling with Section 3 was very nice," Hen Hud freshman Maggie Johannsen said. "They had very strong performances which were nice to watch. They were supportive to not only their team but ours too."

Section 1 had a solid performance finishing fourth overall scoring 181.3 points.

Section 3 won the meet scoring a 184.45 points. Section 6 took second and Section 11 took third.

"Section 1 did very well overall," Johannsen said. "We had a very high team score and all the performances were very strong."

Other notable Section 1 performances

Johannsen finished seventh overall in the all around scoring 36.425 points. She became the first gymnast from Hen Hud to place in the top eight in the all-around.

Mahopac senior Lia Graap tied for third on the uneven bars with Section 6's Ava Shiff scoring a 9.4. She's the first Mahopac gymnast since Shields to place in the top three individually,.

Lakeland's Olivia Marricco tied for fifth on the uneven bars with Section 6's Charlotte Moyer scoring a 9.35. She also tied for sixth on the floor exercise with Section 11's Alexandra Melchiona scoring a 9.325.

Notable results from Section 9

Valley Central's Reilly Benson finished 14th overall in the all-around soring a 35.050 leading Section 9 to a 7th place finish (164.325).

Wallkill's Marlee McCullough was 16th in the All-Around scoring a 33.775.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Julia Meyer finished tied for 20th in the All-Around scoring a 32.4.

Former Garden Center Acreage In Chestnut Ridge Sells For $3.5 Million

The properties at 755 and 759 Chestnut Ridge Road, the former home of Sgobbo’s Rockland Gardens, has sold to 757 Acquisitions LLC of Montvale, NJ. The two parcels comprising 8.88 acres sold for $3.5 million (about $400,000 per acre). The former garden center building remains. The rest of the property is undeveloped land.

Both parcels have access onto Chestnut Ridge Road. The front parcel (former garden center) is shy of three acres. The rear parcel is 6 acres and contains a pond and wetlands. The parcels are zoned R-40, which allows for residential and other uses with additional density by either the Planning Board or special permit by the Town Board.

757 Acquisitions is managed by Joseph Brachfeld, who manages LLCs that own or are affiliated with The Monsey Marketplace, the Arcadian Group, and other companies.

Brachfeld’s companies are privately held real estate investment, operating, and development companies that include ownership, development, and management of industrial, retail, multifamily and office properties throughout the USA, with a focus on the NY tri-state area.

Benbrooke Sells Off Another Parcel in Subdivided Tappan Plaza

Benbrooke Tappan LLC of Haddonfield, NJ last week sold another parcel from the Tappan Plaza Shopping Center on Route 303, this time to Tran Holdings, LLC, managed by Kiet Tran of Old Tappan, NJ.

The 1.12 acre property at 47-51 Route 303 is home to Retro Fitness, Leader Carpet, and other commercial tenants. The structure is approximately 22,700 square feet. It sold for $2,475,000 (about $110 per square foot) and was acquired with mortgage financing of $1,856,250 from Wilmington Savings Fund Society, of Wilmington, DE.

Benbrooke had acquired the properties on Route 303 and Oak Tree Road in April of 2019 for $7.25 million and embarked on a subdivision plan of the 11.75-acre site. It sold a 2.5-acre parcel at the center to LUS, LIDL’s American arm, for $4.5 million.

It also recently sold the Wendy’s site at 3 Route 303 (2,872 square feet), which sits on .76 acres for $1,980,000.

South Nyack & Grandview Multi-families Acquired By Tiffany Management

Tifa Radonic of Tiffany Management has purchased two properties this month. Radonic purchased 171 South Broadway in the hamlet of South Nyack in Orangetown, a multi-family historic building on .95 acres. The purchase price was $2,450,000, with a gap mortgage from M&T Bank in the amount of $565,000. A gap mortgage is a loan that enables a buyer to close while the consolidation of a existing loan is still being processed.

The property, once known as the Van Buren House, was built in 1899. It was designed by local architects Marshall and Henry Emery.

Radonic’s Tiffany Management also acquired the property at 259-265 River Road in Grandview. The property is a 6,648 square foot multi-family home on a 2.8 acre lot. The property was acquired for $5,100,000, with a $2,600,000 mortgage in favor of M& T Bank.

The property known as the Acharyan Apartments is comprised of four buildings, two of which are historic (263 and 265) and two of which are modern (259 and 261). The complex was named after Pundit Acharya, founder of the Yoga Research Institute in New York in 1939.

In its next life, the old Tappan Zee Bridge is going to the fishes. Really.

Chunks of concrete and steel that held the three-mile span aloft over the Hudson River for decades will now be scattered among a half-dozen artificial reefs off Long Island. The first bargeload of the Tappan Zee’s remains will be carried to its watery grave this week, with about 29 bargeloads to follow through the summer and early fall.

By recycling the Tappan Zee, New York State has not only found an affordable and practical way to dispose of some of its massive parts, but is also significantly expanding a state-managed artificial reef program that aims to provide new habitats to increase the diversity of marine life, promote recreational fishing and diving and bolster economic development.

The state program maintains 12 artificial reefs — two in Long Island Sound, two in the Great South Bay, and eight in the Atlantic Ocean — though only six of them will receive a piece of the Tappan Zee; state officials plan to build up the remaining reefs next year with materials from somewhere else. The old bridge parts will be sunk, along with 30 decommissioned barges, tugboats and tenders from the Erie Canal and upstate waterways as well as steel pipes and scrap materials from state transportation projects.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said a few parting words for the bridge at a news conference recently. “It’s coming down, as you know, and it’s a large structure so it begs the philosophical question: What does a bridge do in life after it is finished its life as a bridge? What is the afterlife? Is there a bridge heaven?”

“Well, there is a bridge heaven,” Mr. Cuomo continued. “Bridge heaven is you spend all your life above the water serving people and then you go to bridge heaven”— which he added — “is you go below the water.”

The Tappan Zee, which opened in 1955, was once a vital crossing just north of New York City, carrying nearly 140,000 vehicles a day at its peak. But eventually the bridge began showing its age, though efforts to replace it dragged on for decades. Finally, Mr. Cuomo stepped in with a nearly $4 billion project to build a pair of sleek modern spans, the first of which opened to traffic last August. The replacement bridge is named after the governor’s late father, Mario M. Cuomo, who was governor for three terms.

Today, sections of the Tappan Zee stand forlornly as it is picked apart. Though some parts are destined for recycling centers and scrap yards, others are being repurposed. The New York State Thruway Authority, which operated the Tappan Zee, sold 133 concrete-and-rebar panels from the deck of the bridge — at $1 apiece — to counties and the state Department of Transportation to use for infrastructure projects.

Now concrete and steel from the Tappan Zee’s supporting structure will be deposited among the six artificial reefs, which sit on sites ranging from three acres to 744 acres. An aide to the governor said that the bridge’s steel trusses may also be used to build up the reefs.

All the materials will be thoroughly cleaned before being submerged in the water, state officials said.

The cost of transporting the materials to the artificial reefs is about $5 million, according to state officials. That cost is being covered by Tappan Zee Constructors, the team of private contractors building the Tappan Zee replacement bridge, and the New York State Power Authority, which oversees the New York State Canal Corporation, the owner of the vessels that are to be scuttled.

Joe Paradiso, a charter boat captain on Long Island who is president of the New York Sportfishing Federation, said that his group has called for years for rebuilding and expanding the reefs. The underwater structures attract sea bass, fluke, porgies, blackfish and even juvenile lobsters and turtles.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” he said. “Some of these reefs are just depleted and in need of more materials.”

Mr. Paradiso, who used to drive over the Tappan Zee a couple times a year, said that using its parts to build up the reefs will not only benefit those who fish and dive, but also the local businesses that they support, from bait and tackle stores and fuel stations to hotels and restaurants. “Instead of going to a recycling plant or somewhere else, it’s a much better use,” he said.

Bill Ulfelder, the executive director of the Nature Conservancy in New York, said the expansion of the artificial reefs went hand in hand with his group’s efforts to improve the water quality around Long Island, which has long been polluted by runoff from home septic systems and sewage treatment plants, and bring back oysters, clams, mussels and scallops. “The more we can do to clean the water and improve the wildlife,” he said, “it brings back all the things people love about Long Island.”

Mr. Ulfelder, a scuba diver, recalled that when he first moved to New York City nearly a decade ago, he saw a holding yard for old subway cars that he was told were bound for artificial reefs.

“These iconic symbols of New York — subway cars and now the Tappan Zee — can keep on living,” he said. “Now they’re home for fishes, crustaceans and shellfish — other New Yorkers.”

In its next life, the old Tappan Zee Bridge is going to the fishes. Really.

Chunks of concrete and steel that held the three-mile span aloft over the Hudson River for decades will now be scattered among a half-dozen artificial reefs off Long Island. The first bargeload of the Tappan Zee’s remains will be carried to its watery grave this week, with about 29 bargeloads to follow through the summer and early fall.

By recycling the Tappan Zee, New York State has not only found an affordable and practical way to dispose of some of its massive parts, but is also significantly expanding a state-managed artificial reef program that aims to provide new habitats to increase the diversity of marine life, promote recreational fishing and diving and bolster economic development.

The state program maintains 12 artificial reefs — two in Long Island Sound, two in the Great South Bay, and eight in the Atlantic Ocean — though only six of them will receive a piece of the Tappan Zee; state officials plan to build up the remaining reefs next year with materials from somewhere else. The old bridge parts will be sunk, along with 30 decommissioned barges, tugboats and tenders from the Erie Canal and upstate waterways as well as steel pipes and scrap materials from state transportation projects.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said a few parting words for the bridge at a news conference recently. “It’s coming down, as you know, and it’s a large structure so it begs the philosophical question: What does a bridge do in life after it is finished its life as a bridge? What is the afterlife? Is there a bridge heaven?”

“Well, there is a bridge heaven,” Mr. Cuomo continued. “Bridge heaven is you spend all your life above the water serving people and then you go to bridge heaven”— which he added — “is you go below the water.”

The Tappan Zee, which opened in 1955, was once a vital crossing just north of New York City, carrying nearly 140,000 vehicles a day at its peak. But eventually the bridge began showing its age, though efforts to replace it dragged on for decades. Finally, Mr. Cuomo stepped in with a nearly $4 billion project to build a pair of sleek modern spans, the first of which opened to traffic last August. The replacement bridge is named after the governor’s late father, Mario M. Cuomo, who was governor for three terms.

Today, sections of the Tappan Zee stand forlornly as it is picked apart. Though some parts are destined for recycling centers and scrap yards, others are being repurposed. The New York State Thruway Authority, which operated the Tappan Zee, sold 133 concrete-and-rebar panels from the deck of the bridge — at $1 apiece — to counties and the state Department of Transportation to use for infrastructure projects.

Now concrete and steel from the Tappan Zee’s supporting structure will be deposited among the six artificial reefs, which sit on sites ranging from three acres to 744 acres. An aide to the governor said that the bridge’s steel trusses may also be used to build up the reefs.

All the materials will be thoroughly cleaned before being submerged in the water, state officials said.

The cost of transporting the materials to the artificial reefs is about $5 million, according to state officials. That cost is being covered by Tappan Zee Constructors, the team of private contractors building the Tappan Zee replacement bridge, and the New York State Power Authority, which oversees the New York State Canal Corporation, the owner of the vessels that are to be scuttled.

Joe Paradiso, a charter boat captain on Long Island who is president of the New York Sportfishing Federation, said that his group has called for years for rebuilding and expanding the reefs. The underwater structures attract sea bass, fluke, porgies, blackfish and even juvenile lobsters and turtles.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” he said. “Some of these reefs are just depleted and in need of more materials.”

Mr. Paradiso, who used to drive over the Tappan Zee a couple times a year, said that using its parts to build up the reefs will not only benefit those who fish and dive, but also the local businesses that they support, from bait and tackle stores and fuel stations to hotels and restaurants. “Instead of going to a recycling plant or somewhere else, it’s a much better use,” he said.

Bill Ulfelder, the executive director of the Nature Conservancy in New York, said the expansion of the artificial reefs went hand in hand with his group’s efforts to improve the water quality around Long Island, which has long been polluted by runoff from home septic systems and sewage treatment plants, and bring back oysters, clams, mussels and scallops. “The more we can do to clean the water and improve the wildlife,” he said, “it brings back all the things people love about Long Island.”

Mr. Ulfelder, a scuba diver, recalled that when he first moved to New York City nearly a decade ago, he saw a holding yard for old subway cars that he was told were bound for artificial reefs.

“These iconic symbols of New York — subway cars and now the Tappan Zee — can keep on living,” he said. “Now they’re home for fishes, crustaceans and shellfish — other New Yorkers.”