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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.

1st Charles Reinke played fifteen bingos in five games on his way to a not-quite-perfect-but-still-pretty-good record of 4-1 +502. Mark Kenas handed him his only loss promptly in round one, with Mark digging deep into his word knowledge (CANNULAE, EXPIABLE) and Charles not digging quite as deep (the higher-probability CARITAS) en route to a 341-442 loss for Charles. Fortunes dramatically shifted in round two when he played a two-on-one against Helen Flores and Richard Lauder; in both games, Charles played four bingos and scored above 500, while both his opponents didn't bingo and failed to reach 300. The final scores were 503-288 against Helen and 533-294 against Richard, playing BECOWARD, NIELLOED, STARTUP, DELATING, NETIZEN, DEMERIT, PINEALS, and VERITAS across the two games. Doing battle against Mark Kenas for a second time, Charles pulled out for more bingos (ISOMERIC, RETYPES, ENDOZOA#, BOLETES) for a vengeful 485-449 victory. Charles wrapped things up with a convincing 514-401 win over Thomas Reinke, getting down TINNIER and FINMARK (the currently of Finland, also spelled FINNMARK) vs. Thomas' BARRELS and SWASHED.

2nd Bryan Benwitz maintained his occupation of the club's top spot with a 3-1 +244 record. He enjoyed a painless round-one match against Helen Flores where he bingoed twice with AGONIZE and REDCOATS, winning 453-279 (it is unknown if Helen found it similarly painless). Good tiles continued to find their way to Bryan's rack in round two as he clobbered Sara McLaughlin, 553-258, resulting in her only loss of the evening. Bryan's bingo of GRUESOME was somewhat topical, while SANTERA and CHEMIST were of dubious topicality. Sitting at a juicy 469 points of spread after two rounds, Bryan was flying high, but crashed back to earth when he faced off against Thomas Reinke and suffered devastating defeating, 309-642. Bryan had one bingo of INCITERS, which did little to stem Thomas' bingo onslaught which included ARMORED, PATRIATE, MOULDERS, COINFERS, and OLEINES. Thomas' 600-point game is his second in an as many weeks, and his fourth this year. Bryan corrected course in the final round by defeating Richard Lauder 443-335, thanks to the Hebrew word HADARIM (alternately spelled HEDARIM, the plural of HEDER).

3rd Mark Kenas continued this year's streak of "not going 0-4 in Collins games against the Reinkes", this time finishing 3-1 +192. His 442-341 win over Charles Reinke started things off right, and things continued to go right with a similarly-sizable 472-363 victory over Thomas Reinke. Mark had AESTIVAL and UNREPAIR in that one, while Thomas demonstrated his Collins knowledge with LIMACES# and MANSWORN#. Mark played three bingos in round three (ANTIDORA, TRUCKAGE, BEAUTIES) but met defeat anyway, with Charles prevailing 485-449. In round four, Mark played three more bingos (OORALIS, CITATORY, TENSONS#) but this time had a more agreeable result, winning 466-448 against Thomas.

4th Sara McLaughlin also went 3-1, but her big loss to Bryan left her trailing the pack with a +35 spread. Her big win was a 497-310 match against Richard Lauder, where she played MUSICAL and DEALERS, the former for 98 big points. Well, they weren't really "big points" since each individual point scored just the same as any other individual point...if somebody figures out a way to make their points worth more than their opponent's points, keep it to yourself and use your forbidden knowledge to win Nationals.