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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.

1st Thomas Reinke stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field with a 4-0 +509 record. He started with a solid 462-460 win against Ron Malzer, getting down the appropriate WORDAGE as well as PRETENDS. Against Mark Kenas, Thomas again scored 462 and again prevailed, as the precepts of mathematics inform us that Mark's 354 points was the lower of the two totals. Thomas had THEELINS, DOVECOTE, and LEGLENS#, while Mark had DROPSIED and ENSOULED. Thomas' closest game came in round three when he came away with the win against Andy Bohnsack, 407-387. Both players reached into the list of new words, as Thomas got NAMASTE, while Andy got CRINGER (CRINGEST is also a word in addition to CRINGERS). But those initial three wins were impotent when compared to the monster win Thomas had in round four, when he rematched against Mark Kenas and completely blew him out, 651-372. Thomas' six bingos didn't really fit in the box on the scorecard, but they definitely fit here where there is effectively unlimited space to type them: NIOBITE, PORTIERE, SOLVING, SCERNED#, COTIJAS (another new one, as previously COTIJA did not take an S), and MOULAGE. That 651 is the highest game score yet this year, beating Mark Kenas' previous 650 by one point.

2nd Richard Lauder bingoed exactly twice in all of his games and ended up at 3-1 +42. In round one, a 92-point TEAZLES (in addition to the much lower-scoring DETAINER for 59) was instrumental in squeaking past Bryan Benwitz, 360-353. His defensive abilities were on display again when he tamped down the high-scoring habits of one Andy Bohnsack, winning their match 428-307 thanks to bingo finds of BIFORATE and TARDIES. Richard's opponents continued to have little luck in the scoring department as Richard casually defeated Lynda Finn by a score of 410-303, this time finding GLORIAS and SALTILY. Unfortunately, Richard's good fortune ran out right at the cusp of a 4-0 record, as Charles Reinke handily beat him in the final round, 474-281. Richard's MURIATES and phony NEOGENIC* (NEOTENIC is a word) were exceeded by Charles' AERATION and DRAWEES, the latter for 104 points.

3rd Charles Reinke bingoed fourteen times en route to a 3-2 +367 finish. His first game against Mark Kenas was a 451-496 loss despite three bingos of PLENISH, INERTIA, and SIDEMAN; Mark had STODGED, SALARIED, and HETEROS to neutralize Charles' presumed bingo advantage. A rematch later in the evening contributed another checkmark to the loss column, as Charles lost to Mark again, 462-466. Again, Charles had three bingos (ALDERMEN, VANADIUM, and RESPROUT) but couldn't pull out the win. Charles made up for those two losses with a pair of wins in the second round, when he took on Dave Kinzer and Bryan Benwitz simultaneously. The game against Dave was somewhat close, 407-373, but the game against Bryan was not close at all, ending 569-380 in Charles' favor. Charles phonied with the reasonable TRIAXAL* (TRIAXIAL, BIAXAL, and BIAXIAL are all good), in addition to OVERNICE, PLEASANT, and REDBONE (Bryan had ALEHOUSE and POSITIVE). Charles' 474-281 win in the final round secured his third-place finish.

Thomas may have stolen the show with his 651-point game, but Bryan wanted to put another entry into the leger of the 600-point club, this time with a 610-338 win over Lynda Finn. Sadly, his 600-pointer was marred by the phony BOOGIERS, and was not only marred but desecrated by the 212-point phony triple-triple MARZAPAN* (correctly spelled MARZIPAN). This takes away "highest scoring phony" honors from Charles Reinke, who played the phony triple-triple REACCESS* for 185 points back in 2015. Also notable was Dennis Lloyd's phony nine-letter word TWEENAGER, which should totally be a word.