1st Thomas Reinke topped a trio of 3-1 finishers with his superior +328 spread. He started off on the right foot, but also sort of the wrong foot, with a first-round victory over Richard Lauder, 387-340. Richard had two bingos (ALIBIED and CORONATE), while Thomas had none (that's where the "wrong foot" part comes in). Footing was regained in the second round, when Thomas took down Mary Becker by a score of 454-311. The proverbial tables were flipped as Mary was held bingoless while Thomas got down RADIALE and ELEGIES. In round three, Bryan Benwitz faced the full extent of Thomas' wrath, and since "wrath" in a Scrabble context means "scoring lots of points", it's no surprise that Thomas won that one as well, 529-349. Supplying many of those points was Thomas' 140-point triple-triple ABUTILON (a flowering plant), in addition to bingos of PLEADING and LANGSYNE (Bryan had HOARSELY and WINIEST). Thomas' quest for a perfect record was rudely interrupted in the final game of the night as he ran up against his brother Charles Reinke and lost 408-450. The brothers stayed on the high-probability end of the bingo spectrum: Thomas had ROUNDER and BEANIES to Charles' OUTVIES and CORANTOS.

2nd Dave Gilligan averaged 402 per game, well above historical norms, on his way to a 3-1 +172 record wherein every win was comfortably above the 400-point threshold. His first game was a 414-328 win over Helen Flores, made possible in part by a 104-point BLANKETS, his tenth-highest scoring bingo ever in club play. He also played COTERIES for some extra scoring punch. The following game, against Bryan Benwitz, was less kind, and Dave was handed his only loss, 327-434. Order was restored to the universe as a third-round game against Mary Becker resulted in the desired outcome (a win, unless you're a masochist), 412-359. The combatants had one bingo apieced: CROONED for Dave, SIFTING for Mary. Dave went into the last round knowing that a paragraph in the writeup was on the line, and he didn't disappoint, toppling club stalwart Richard Lauder 454-314. Richard had ROSIEST to turn a "blowout" into a "not quite as much of a blowout", while Dave had REBOOTED and ANERGIA.

3rd Bryan Benwitz followed the same pattern as Dave, scoring above 400 in all his victories as he finished at 3-1 +158. The first victory came against Charles Reinke, 468-470. Bryan played MARRING, FADDISH (given the placement of the blank, Bryan could have played CADDISH, KADDISH, LADDISH, or MADDISH as well), and APPRAISE (which can be extended to APPRAISEE). Charles had NONWHITE and LITTORAL in his losing effort. Bryan then defeated Dave GIlligan 434-327 despite the bingo tally being even (UNEARNED for Bryan, EDITION for Dave). The third round brought a spread-destroying 349-529 loss against Thomas Reinke (the gory details of which can be relived above), but Bryan's ship righted in the fourth round when he defeated Dennis Lloyd 456-323. Dennis had the nice find of COYOTES (anagram: OOCYTES), but Bryan outdid him with TWASOME and STEROID, the latter for 97 points (somebody explain to me how STEROID could ever score 97 points).

Mark Kenas' SYNTAGMA was chosen as word of the week. SYNTAGM is also a word.