1st Charles Reinke stood at the top of the weekly standings for the second week in a row, this time finishing at 4-1 +438 despite averaging just one bingo per game (a far cry from his yearly average of roughly 2.25). He got the year's fifth 600-point game when he defeated Mark Kenas 601-271 in the first round. Perhaps even more notable was the fact that Mark actually bingoed the same amount of times as Charles did in that game (MYNHEER and LAITIES for Charles, STEEVING and REDREAMT for Mark). That game was one half of a two-on-one; the other half got off comparatively lightly as he beat Dennis Lloyd 401-356. Charles picked up another big win when he defeated Steve Hartsman 471-263, again not needing much in the way of bingos (just a sole SOILING) to rack up the points. He got a generous helping of Mark's revenge in their third-round rematch, which Charles lost 359-557 in the face of Mark's PAINTURE#, PUNDONOR#, UNITAGE, and CYANITE. A 450-397 victory against Bryan Benwitz, featuring a bingo of THIONINE, completed Charles' first-place run. (THIONINE is notable for taking an E for ETHIONINE, a word which is itself notable for taking an M for METHIONINE).

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +501 with a 459 average, highest among all players. He handily defeated Helen Flores in round one, 438-304, playing ANTISAG and MONIKER to Helen's WILDEST. For round two, he made good use of his expansive word knowledge (which is the whole point of having expansive word knowledge in the first place), slapping down four bingos (CORRADE, OSTEOID, SHELTIES, and QUANTING) for a crushing 563-293 triumph over Dave Kinzer. Dedicated write-up readers will remember John Bialek's upset win over Bryan last week; history was given a chance to repeat itself, but a repeat wasn't in the cards as Bryan won a remarkably vengeful matchup 439-289, thanks to OUTDARES and VINTAGER. Bryan's 4-0 chances were snuffed out in the final game, as his TRANSHIP and LENTILS weren't enough to overtake Charles Reinke, the final score being 397-450.

3rd Steve Hartsman had another strong showing, going 3-1 +242. He picked up a large spread advantage early by defeating Carol Orman 533-299, landing bingos of SWEATER, SQUIRES, and GORDITAS (Carol found DOUGHIER, which could possibly be a way to describe your gorditas). However, most of that spread advantage was negated by a 263-471 loss to Charles Reinke. Things got back on track with a 458-318 win against Helen Flores, where Helen's RADIXES (fun fact: RADIX can also be pluralized to RADICES) was bested by Steve's PILOTING and RENTERS. Steve finished his evening by taking down John Bialek 416-340; when the dust cleared, the one bingo on the board was Steve's TEENAGE.

Mark's nine-letter FROTTAGES, played through the R and the first T, was word of the week, simply because his finds of GIFTSHOP# and PUNDONOR# were disqualified for only being good in Collins.