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1st Bryan Benwitz extended his winning streak to 13 games with a spotless 4-0 +240 record. Each game of that personal-best winning streak has seen Bryan score above 400, meaning that the possible (probable?) key to ending Bryan's streak is to force him to score in the 300s. He kicked off his latest round of heinie-whuppings with a 444-343 win against Charles Reinke, finding GAROTTE, UNIFILAR, and word of the week SEEDCAKE in the winning effort. He got the Reinkes out of the way early by dispatching Thomas Reinke in round two, although the score was much closer at 426-422. Bryan got down the high-probability sevens of CORDAGE and LAAGERS, while Thomas responded with some high-probability bingos of his own, NEROLIS and TURNABLE. Bryan's bingo output was reduced in round three, but the winning continued without interruption, as he felled Helen Flores 413-340 with a sole bingo of AROUSER. The winning streak remained intact in the final round when he defeated the visiting one-man Iowa contigent, Mike Johnson, by a score of 455-393. His bingos there were PRANCED and QUAERES.

2nd Lynda Finn didn't quite make it to thirteen wins in a row, but her 3-1 +337 record saw her win her final three games of the night, so if we just give her a few more weeks, thirteen wins is completely doable. Losing to Sara McLaughlin 354-368 in the opening game was not an ideal start for Lynda, but the recovery began immediately when she played EGESTION and COALIEST to take a 436-368 win over Richard Lauder (who had TENORITE and the sounds-offensive-but-isn't FAGOTER). Lynda then scored a sizable win over Dave Kinzer, 421-327, with a single bing of SPOTTER. But Lynda's true nature as a dealer of Scrabble punishment was fully apparent in the final round when she trounced Helen Flores 443-254, playing bingos of ENSLAVED and NOVENAE in the process.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +72, using the bonus fifth game to prevail over a knot of players stuck at 2-2 records. His first-round match against Richard Lauder resulted in a quite favorable outcome, 477-428, but that big margin was later undone by a devastating loss to Charles Reinke, 328-547. In that one, Charles played the nines of TELFERING and DOLLARISE# not just for style points, but actual Scrabble points as well. In between those games, Thomas grabbed a pair of wins off Mark Kenas, 436-370 and 467-431. Uncharacteristically for those high-powered Collins games, Thomas had only three bingos combined in the two wins: FURCATED, DISORDER, and OUTPAINT. Thomas' closely-fought 422-426 defeated at the unbeatable expertise of Bryan Benwitz was the other loss on his scorecard.

1st Bryan Benwitz came in first for the second straight week, and set his current win streak at nine with a 4-0 +469 record. A 490 per-game average was another indicator of his dominance, if the undefeated record wasn't a clear enough indicator for you. His closest game came in round one, but it wasn't especially close, with Bryan besting Andy Bohnsack 445-398. Bryan hit LEGALISE and RADIUSES, while Andy had ELONGATE and TROPICS. The two bingos Bryan played in that game would end up being the lowest bingo total of any of his games; he immediately improved on it by playing NEATEST, ROILIER, and STACKER in a 485-398 takedown of Charles Reinke, who played REOUTFIT and SPAEING. His bingo counts kept going up in a 576-375 win over Sara McLaughlin, where Sara's sole POLITER was overrun by Bryan's FANCIEST, SUBEDIT, DURATION, and ONAGERS. Bryan wrapped up a perfect night by winning big against Richard Lauder, 454-320, but unfortunately didn't keep the upward trend going by playing five bingos; instead, he just played three: SETTLES, ISATINE, and EUSOCIAL.

2nd Charles Reinke went "three and Bryan" with a +236 spread. It was smooth sailing in the first round as Charles waltzed right past Mark Kenas, 509-345, thanks to VIATORES, GOONIES, and RESELECT. The metaphorical "immovable object" was encountered in round two, as described above, but Charles quickly rebounded with a rematch against Mark Kenas, which he won, 466-443. Mark had the 122-point FAUVISM, along with ENTRAIN (which Charles played against Mark just last week), while Charles found AIRHOLE and the nifty Collins-only COUGUARS#. Charles encountered an emboldened Lynda Finn in round four, but managed the win, 449-313, despite Lynda riding high from her impressive performance in last weekend's Decorah tournament. Bingos in that one were PIGLETS for Lynda, ANERGIES and CRUNODE for Charles.

Mark's TERIYAKI was the (very tasty) word of the week.

1st Bryan Benwitz was flawless (at least from a wins perspective) with a 4-0 +294 record. Showing remarkable consistency, he bingoed twice and scored over 400 (but less than 500) in all his games. His opening salvo was a 446-401 win against Richard Lauder, who got down SAGIEST and DENTING to Bryan's OUTKILL and PRALINES. Round two saw him win big against Helen Flores, 443-349, bingoing with LINDANES and SEDGIER. With Helen out of the way, Bryan then faced off against his primary rival in the yearly standings list, Charles Reinke, and made some progress towards another club championship with a 428-370 victory. His 102-point DEMOTICS (anagramming to the slightly more common COMEDIST and DOMESTIC) was a much-needed scoring infusion, while UNFEARED for 76 didn't hurt either. As a reward for beating one Reinke, Bryan had to go through Thomas Reinke to secure his undefeated record, and secure it he did, with a no-doubt-about-it 486-389 win. Thomas pulled out some nifty word knowledge with POETLIKE, GUMWOODS, and PALTRIER, while Bryan had STILTING and ENCLAVED.

2nd Dennis Lloyd snagged a coveted spot in the writeup with his 3-1 +243 record, right before his globetrotting ways remove him from Scrabble combat for the next few weeks. Things didn't go Dennis' way in round one, as he was vanquished by Helen Flores, 344-363, despite Dennis playing the only bingo of the game with ARRIVES. The bingos flowed a bit more freely against Sara McLaughlin, as he had three of them (FOUNTAIN, RABBITS, GENDERS) en route to a 508-287 win. That 508 score was also the highest single game score of the night across all players. Dennis' up-and-down night continued with a game against Lynda Finn where both players faced consistently awkward letters and only Lynda managed to bingo (GARAGES); nevertheless, Dennis took the win, 329-314. Dennis wrapped up his strong performance with two bingos (ENTAILER, ENDEARS) and a 394-368 defeat of Richard Lauder.

3rd Charles Reinke snuck by his brother to grab third place with a 3-1 +144 record and an anomalously low total of five bingos. He was held bingoless in a matchup versus Sara McLaughlin, but prevailed regardless, 403-341. Sara played LORRIES to help keep the score close. Charles' other two wins were both against Mark Kenas, 433-399. Charles upped his bingo output in those Collins-lexicon games, playing ENTRAIN and DERISORY in the first win and COALIZES# and UNHORSE in the second. Sadly, a previously-chronicled 370-428 loss to Bryan Benwitz set Charles back not only in the nightly standings but the yearly standings as well.

Helen's SICKOUTS was bingof of the week.