1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed mightily over a contested field of ten players with his pristine 4-0 +268 record. He scored over 400 in each of his games, a good strategy if one wishes to go undefeated. He vanquished Richard Lauder in the first round by a score of 433-398, getting down bingos of BOODIES and ANERGIES vs. Richard's ELECTIVE and PASSERS. The high-water mark came against Sara Mclaughlin when Bryan romped to a 466-309 win, getting down SAMISEN and EROTICAL (Sara had INDOORS to stem the bleeding). Bryan's closest victory was a 434-426 match against Lynda Finn, but Bryan's three bingos (CARMINE, CLARIONS, and SHOUTED) delivered him the win in the end. Sitting at 3-0, with visions of a headlining paragraph tantalizing his eyes like an oasis in the desert, Bryan went up against Thomas Reinke and comfortably prevailed, 429-361, thanks to finds of COGITATE and BORANES. And so the prestige of having his feats described first, before all others, in the writeup was rightfully grasped.

2nd Mark Kenas made a rare entry into the top three with a 3-1 +391 record and a wild 489 per-game average. His strict adherence to the international Collins lexicon guarantees that he faces nothing but Reinkes in all of his games; however, he is never disgruntled by the strength of his only two opponents, and the frightening depths of his word knowledge were fully on display as he unleashed thirteen bingos in total across four games. Mark took both games off Thomas Reinke, both by staggering margins, 493-353 and 537-357. Thomas had just one bingo total in the two games, STINTED, while Mark had seven: SQUARED, INTERNED, IODISERS#, ADROITER, SEDITION, AVULSION, and WANTAGES. He got another 500-point game against Charles Reinke, winning 549-381 with bingos of HAFFETS, STENCIL, MEDITATES, and CUITERS#. That game also marked the end of Charles' 13-game winning streak. Charles did manage to prevent Mark from going 4-0 and finishing ahead of Bryan, winning their rematch 474-378. Mark's bingos there were GELIDEST# and SERPENTS, while Charles had SITHENS and LANDMINE. SITHENS is a Shakespearean word which means "since" (also spelled SITHENCE), and woe betide anyone who attempts to play SITHEN*, which is not a word.

3rd Lynda Finn, fresh off a strong showing in Arizona where she won division 2 of the Van Rand Phoenix Tournament, continued her run of strong play with a 3-1 +282 record. It was a bit of a slow start for Lynda as she barely beat her first-round opponent, Helen Flores - Lynda was bingoless but held on for a 323-313 win. The rest of her games were much better, starting with a 448-394 win over Richard Lauder. Lynda's single bingo of SEEPIER was outdone by Richard's IOLITES and CATTIES, but Lynda was happy to learn that there is nothing in the rule book which says that the player who bingos more often has to be the winner. A 426-434 loss to Bryan Benwitz, with bingos of INTEGER and LUSTIER, kept her momentum going despite the loss, and she turned it on in the final round to beat Sara McLaughlin 477-251.

Thomas Reinke's FLATWAYS was word of the week. FLATWAYS, like SITHENS above, cannot have the S taken off, as it is an adverb meaning "on the flat side" (also spelled FLATWISE, which is higher-probability and more helpful to know).