Drew Hmielewski, a multisport athlete from Marshall, Minn., who was a redshirt freshman for the Gophers football team last fall, has left the football program to concentrate on baseball, a university spokesman confirmed Thursday.
The 6-1, 204-pound wide receiver played in nine games last season, returning five punts for 25 yards. He did not have a reception. He missed the 2016 season because of an injury.
Hmielewski, an outfielder, spent the 2017 baseball season as a redshirt. The 2016 Marshall High School graduate set a school record with a .471 batting average as a junior and was named Big South Conference player of the year that season.
The football program also announced the addition of two transfers and seven incoming players who enrolled in the spring semester.
The transfers are defensive back Bishop McDonald, who played two seasons at Minnesota Duluth, and True Thompson, a wide receiver from Iowa Western Community College and the son of Darrell Thompson, the Gophers' all-time leading rusher. McDonald, a former North St. Paul High School standout, made 78 tackles, defended 16 passes and intercepted three passes in 23 games at Minnesota Duluth. Thompson, a former Robbinsdale Armstrong standout, played in 10 games in 2017, catching four passes for 65 yards at Iowa Western. He spent the 2016 season as a redshirt.
The seven other players who joined the team for spring semester are sophomore quarterback Vic Viramontes of Riverside (Calif.) City College, and six freshmen: quarterback Zack Annexstad and offensive linemen Curtis Dunlap and Daniel Faalele of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.; linebacker Thomas Rush of Marysville, Ohio; defensive lineman Alex Reigelsperger of Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio; and offensive lineman Nathan Boe of Lakeville North.
