University of Washington athletics is in the news this weekend for all the right reasons. John Ross III just broke Chris Johnson's 40-yeard dash record at the combine, Kelsey Plum just became the all-time leading scorer for women's basketball and Markelle Fultz made the short list of 15 for the Wooden Award in men's hoops.

Ross was not the only Husky at the combine, as six others joined him Indianapolis. Safety Budda Baker, tight end Darrell Daniels, cornerbacks Sidney jones and Kevin King, outside linebacker JoJo Mathis and defensive tackle Elijah Qualls are all at the combine auditioning for an NFL job this weekend. Leading up to the dash Ross said that he felt fast, and he was not wrong, running a 4.22 40 which would have gotten him an island or $1 million if he ran in Adidas cleats, as per their famous promise for combine participants. However he chose Nikes, which turned out well for him as the shoe company signed him soon after to endorse their product.

Kelsey Plum cemented her name in college basketball history against Utah recently and did it in style. Plum lit up the Utes with a career high 57 points to set the record. Surely, she is going to be high on many WNBA draft boards after the season. Her teammates Chantel Osahor and Aarion McDonald nabbed league honors, with Osahor making honorable mention Pac-12 all-defensive team and McDonald got herself on the all-freshman team.

Mens hoops star Markelle Fultz kept him name in the running for the year-end Wooden Award, despite sitting out a couple games due to injury. Fultz is one of four Pac-12 players to make the list, with UCLA's Lonzo Ball, Oregon's Dillon Brooks and Arizona's Lauri Marrken making the list as well. Another Northwest connection made the list, with former Husky and current Gonzaga Bulldog Nigel Williams-Goss making the list of 15.

Fultz is also on the list for the Bob Cousy award which goes to the country's top point guard. At 23.2 points per game, Fultz leads the Pac-12 in scoring, and is sixth in the entire nation. He has set the UW freshman record for scoring with 547 points, however he probably won't get a chance to add more points since the Huskies will most definitely not make any postseason tournaments after the Pac-12 tourney. it's been real Markelle, best of luck at the next level. The only real question for him now is who is going to be taken ahead of him come June?

Photo: Flickr/Dave Sizer