Interview; Josh Pawlik

    Homewood sophomore Josh Pawlik has been improving so quickly for so long now that it's hard to pick a single point to mark the beginning of his rise to the upper ranks of Alabama's distance running elite. His presence there, however, is now much more noticeable.

As a freshman last year, his fourteenth-place finish in cross country turned into fifth in the indoor 1600m, turned into runner-up in the outdoor 1600. This year he improved to second place in 4A-5A cross country and has turned in the fastest 1600 time in 5A behind Sam Nuckols, the defending 6A champion who dropped down a classification for his senior year.

With wins at the Leeds Greenwave Invitational and King of the Mountain Championships last month, Pawlik currently holds the title of best miler in the Birmingham Area, a perennial hotbed of distance talent. This weekend he'll defend that claim at the Mountain Brook Invitational, where he may face one or all of Hoover's three seniors with career bests at 4:20, 5A rivals Will McGee and Stephen Calvert, home turf defenders Kenan Lucas and Allen Childs, and Nuckols, coming off a 4:15 performance at the Challenge of Champions.