Oklahoma
Candlelight vigil held in Downtown Wichita for Oklahoma nonbinary teen Nex Benedict
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Candlelight vigils are being held in cities across the country to remember the life of Nex Benedict, an Oklahoma high school student who died one day after being involved in a fight in the school’s bathroom.
In Wichita Sunday night, dozens of community members gathered at the Keeper of the Plains to share their thoughts and offer their condolences.
“This is our people,” said Riley Chiever who attended the vigil. “Nex was one of us.”
Benedict, a 16-year-old who identified as nonbinary, died on February 8. One day earlier, Benedict and three girls got into an altercation at the school. In police body camera footage from a hospital bed after the fight, Benedict told a police investigator that the girls had attacked after the teen poured water on them. Benedict said the girls were picking on the teen and some friends.
“They came at me,” Benedict told a police investigator. “They grabbed on to my hair. I grabbed onto them, and I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser. Then they got my legs out from underneath me and got me on the ground.”
Benedict was released from the hospital, but the next day, the teen’s mother called emergency crews to their home saying Benedict’s breathing was shallow,
“Sometimes it takes a tragedy for some other person to decide that’s enough,” said Jackie Carter, senior pastor at Table of Hope. “I’ve had enough now. I’m going to act. Our hope is that every one of these people that were here tonight will act.”
An official cause of death has not been released, but Benedict’s family said the teen was bullied for identifying as a nonbinary. In Wichita and many other cities outside Oklahoma, members and advocates of the LGBTQ+ community have rallied to bring awareness to Benedict’s death and help those that have been a victim of discrimination.
The Owasso Police Department in Oklahoma has reported that Benedict’s preliminary autopsy results did not indicate that the teenager died as a result of injuries during the fight.
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Last season, Alabama football was effectively eliminated from College Football Playoff contention by way of a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma that was entirely uncharacteristic of the team that had just trounced LSU 42-13 two weekends prior.
The wait for the rematch spans less than a year, 357 days in total. On Nov. 15, the No. 4 Crimson Tide (7-1, 5-0 SEC) will meet the No. 11 Sooners at home at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be nationally televised on ABC.
Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2 SEC) is 2-0 in true SEC road games this fall. Those wins came at South Carolina and at Tennessee, respectively. The Sooners had a 6-7 season last year, its first in the conference, with the upset over Alabama paving the way for Brent Venables’ team to get into a bowl game.
Alabama began year two of the Kalen DeBoer era with a theme that continued from 2024 and was perhaps most exemplified by that Oklahoma game: losing on the road to an unranked team. However, since then, the Crimson Tide has not lost a game (though it came close in its 29-22 triumph at South Carolina on Oct. 25).
This Saturday, the Crimson Tide plays host to LSU in a game that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. CT, also on ABC. The Tigers (5-3, 2-3 SEC) revamped their coaching staff after a 49-25 home loss against undefeated Texas A&M Oct. 25, relieving head coach Brian Kelly of his duties the next day and dismissing offensive coordinator Joe Sloan the day after that.
The Sooners would do well to avoid another loss for their own hopes to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff. Texas and Ole Miss have defeated Oklahoma so far in 2025 (the Sooners and Longhorns play one another at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas), and a third loss with an SEC featuring so many contenders for a berth would be catastrophic. Oklahoma is on a bye this weekend, meaning it will be rested for the game at Alabama.
Alabama has not lost a conference home game since November of 2019 against LSU. All four of the Crimson Tide’s 2024 losses under DeBoer occurred away from Tuscaloosa. Its last home loss overall was in September 2023 against the Longhorns. That year, the team went on to make the last iteration of the four-team Playoff in what turned out to be Nick Saban’s final season as head coach.
The Tennessee Volunteers played one of their more important games of the college football season on Saturday night, as they played one of their most important and most beneficial home games of the season, as the Tennessee Vols played against the Oklahoma Sooners. This is a game that the Vols were expected to win, but that was not the case for the game outcome, as the Vols walked away from the game with a loss. The Tennessee Volunteers lost the game in front of their home crowd, and this was their second loss in program history with their black uniforms. This is something that hasn’t been very common, but even through those superstitions, things still can go south.
This team didn’t show up the way that many hoped they would, but even in that same breath, the Oklahoma Sooners didn’t either. However, the Sooners showed up more than the Vols did, as the Vols walked away with a loss.
This performance caught the attention of many, including one of the main players who used to play for the Tennessee Volunteers. That player is Daniel Bituli, who is known for not keeping his thoughts to himself, as he isn’t afraid of letting his thoughts be known. This is something that has been noticed throughout the season with Bituli, as he made it clear how he feels during the game.
Here is what the Tennessee fan and former player had to say about the Vols during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Volsfootball1217 0180 / Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
“Respectfully, some of our guys are acting soft asf.”
While this team has lost three games it is safe to say that some expectations has still been exceeded. Let’s remember that the Vols lost a lot of players to the transfer portal. One of the players being Nico Iamaleava, who was all but confirmed to be the starting QB for the Vols this season.
The Vols have been looking to improve what they have built, but the real work has yet to be finished, as this is a young team with a llot of returning pieces. The Vols have an exciting future, but they will need to continue to get better, and in the opinion of former Tennessee Volunteers linebacker Daniel Bituli, the Vols need to fix some of these acts that they have been having such as acting soft.
This is a team with a lot of positives, and some negatives to go with it, but this season if far from over as the Tennessee Vols have three regular season games and a post season bowl game ahead of them.
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