Newton’s Bestell to wrestle at Central College

Newton senior Anthony Bestell has gotten better each year he has been on the mat for the Cardinal wrestling team. He hopes his final year in a Newton singlet is his best yet as he has expectations of winning a state medal for the first time in his career.

No matter what happens this season, Bestell has decided to extend his athletic career and recently picked the Central College wrestling program as his future team.

“Central just felt like home,” Bestell said. “Jaise (Gulling) and Gage (Linahon) are both there. I have wrestled with both of them for a long time. To have an older brother there just made it feel like it was the place I needed to be.”

Bestell was 17-18 as a freshman. The season in which he had his best record was when he was 25-11 as a sophomore. But he advanced to the state wrestling tournament as a junior and finished the season 15-12. Bestell has 57 career victories.

“I need to get on the podium this year,” Bestell said. “That’s the goal. I didn’t wrestle well at state last year. So this year I just want to get on the podium.”

When it came to his college decision, Bestell said he chose Central College over Morningside College and a school in Illinois.

Several former Cardinals have wrestled or are still wrestling at Central. Gage Linahon and Jaise Gulling are both there now. Duncan Lee recently went through the Dutch program and current Newton head coach Adam Hale is a former Dutch grappler. Lee also is listed as a Central College assistant wrestling coach on the school’s athletic website.

“They are so friendly there. Everyone cares about each other,” Bestell said. “Gage hasn’t been there very long yet but he’s had a lot of really good things to say about the school and the program.”

Hale has been with the Cardinal wrestling program for the past eight seasons. This is his first season as head coach.

“This is my first athlete as a head coach who chose to wrestle in college so that is great,” Hale said. “I went to Central too. It’s even more fun to know that he’s going there. I go way back with that coaching staff.”

Central’s head wrestling coach is Eric Van Kley. He also was Hale’s head coach when he was with the Dutch. As much as Van Kley wants former athletes like Hale to push their athletes to Central, Hale made sure to let Bestell go through the process and make his own decision.

“They have asked some questions before and I will talk to them about that,” Hale said. “Anthony took ownership of the decision. We pushed a few other colleges his way when others reached out. He was pretty convinced that Central was where he wanted to go.”

Hale said Bestell has made wrestling in college a reality because he’s coachable and has gotten better every year he’s been on the mat because of hard work.

“Anthony has a life committed to wrestling,” Hale said. “He came into high school and did everything right and just keeps getting better and better. Two years ago to last year he made huge strides and even last year to this year he made even more strides.

“He’s been committed to get better in any way he can.”

Bestell said he hasn’t had very many conversations about his future at Central yet. He is not sure if he will redshirt. And he’s unsure where the Dutch coaching staff wants him to be weight-wise. But he did say Van Kley told him to hit the weight room and get bigger before he gets to campus.

Bestell plans on majoring in finance with the hopes of one day becoming a financial advisor.