COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - It can be difficult to stand out when you're part of a receiving group that also includes a pair of All-Americans.

But Saint John's junior Riley Schwellenbach is finding ways to do just that.

The 5-foot-9, 160-pound junior out of East Ridge High School already has 33 catches for 573 yards this season – totals that rank third on the team behind only the aforementioned All-American duo of seniors Dylan Wheeler and Joey Gendreau.

That comes on the heels of his sophomore season a year ago when he finished with 34 catches for 531 yards and five touchdowns – including scores of 12 and 89 yards in an NCAA Division III third-round playoff matchup against Susquehanna (Pa.).

"With Wheeler and Gendreau, as well as sophomore transfer Carson Hegerle and senior Owen Amrhein, we have a lot of talented receivers in this offense," Schwellenbach said. "But I try to run every route like I'm going to be the one getting the ball. We do a good job spreading it around so everyone is going to get their chances.

"I know there are going to be games when teams try to stop Dylan and Joey," he continued. "That's when I have to make sure I'm getting open and making catches. But there aren't a lot of egos in this group. It doesn't matter to any of us if we finish with 150 yards receiving or 5 yards as long as the team wins."

That unselfish attitude has earned Schwellenbach – who has been clocked at 4.59 seconds in the 40-yard dash – the admiration of his fellow receivers.

"Schwell is one of the fastest guys on the team, and he has unbelievable skills," Wheeler said. "If he was at a school without so many other weapons, he'd easily be a 1,000-yard, double-digit touchdown guy. But he always puts the team first. All he cares about is that we come out on top.

"I think he's only scratched the surface of what he's capable of. I'm excited to see what he goes on to do the rest of this season and next year as well."

Yet football is not the only sport at which Schwellenbach excels. He's also a starting outfielder on the Johnnie baseball team who had 22 hits and 23 RBI last spring.

He said getting the chance to play both sports is a big part of why he landed in Collegeville.

"I hadn't originally planned on playing football in college," he said. "I wasn't sure I was going to play any sports, to be honest. But baseball is the sport I've played the longest. So I had started to look around at places I could do that. Then I had a pretty good senior season in football and I began to wonder if there was a place I could do both. My head (football) coach suggested a couple places, and Saint John's was one of them.

"I came up here to visit and everyone seemed really receptive to the idea. They said there were a bunch of guys who had done that already here. So it seemed like the ideal fit."

Like Wheeler, who stopped playing football after seventh grade and did not return until his senior season in high school, Schwellenbach also came to the sport late. Though he played football in second and third grade, it wasn't until he was a junior in high school that he decided to give it a real shot.

"I was playing basketball, but I quit after my sophomore year, and I didn't want to be a single-sport athlete," Schwellenbach said. "I knew (quarterback) Tanner Zolnosky (who now plays at Western Illinois). He encouraged me to come out and try being a receiver. There was a pretty steep learning curve that first year. I was still trying to get all the basics down, learning the route trees and how everything worked.

"That's where it really helped having someone like Tanner around who was an expert on all that stuff. He really helped me get up to speed."

After playing sparingly as a junior, Schwellenbach came on strong as a senior, recording 48 catches for 1,172 yards and 14 touchdowns.

And he hasn't slowed down since.

"He's a great athlete and he keeps getting better every year," SJU head coach Gary Fasching '81 said. "Dylan always gets a lot of attention from the defenses we face. Joey gets a lot of attention. But we're starting to notice Riley getting more attention, too. Other teams are aware of the way he's able to take the top of a defense."

Away from the football and baseball fields, Schwellenbach is a data science major who hopes to eventually pursue a career in that industry close to his home in Woodbury.

"I came in here as a global business leadership major, but I've always liked math and working with numbers," he said. "There wasn't much math in business, and I had taken an intro computer science course, which I really liked. So I gravitated toward data science. It's kind of a mix of math, computer science and data analytics. That's the perfect fit for me."

Schwellenbach, meanwhile, is proving a perfect fit for the Johnnies offensive attack.

"I just love being a part of this team," he said. "I think that's true for most of the people who play here. That's why so many of our guys who have the chance to return for a fifth year (of eligibility) take advantage of the opportunity. 

"It's so much fun that nobody wants to be done. You want to keep being around these guys."