Gardena’s Giddens Will Attend El Camino

Morris Giddens of Gardena High plans to attend El Camino College and run track in the fall.

Giddens, the City Section 1,600-meter champion, placed second in the event in a personal best 4 minutes, 10.50 seconds at last month’s state meet. It was the highest finish in eight years by a City Section runner in the state meet’s 1,600.

As a junior, Giddens won the 3,200 and placed second in the 1,600 at the City championship meet.

Giddens, who said he had scored above the NCAA requirement 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and had a scholarship offer from Cal State Northridge, chose El Camino because he hopes to eventually get an offer from a prestigious Division I university.

“I want to run on a national championship team at somewhere like Arkansas or Tennessee,” Giddens said. “I think I can develop into a national-caliber runner over the next two years at El Camino.”

Giddens will be joined at El Camino by Kevin Hughley, his coach at Gardena. Hughley, an assistant at Gardena the past three seasons, will help coach sprints and field events at El Camino.