CMS Tennis Players John Michael Cham-A-Koon '04 And Ivan Yeh '05 Capture NCAA Division III Doubles Championship

CMS doubles team John Michael Cham-A-Koon '04 and Ivan Yeh '05 of Claremont McKenna College captured the NCAA Division III National Championship on May 22 at UC Santa Cruz. They beat third-seeded Kyle Harding and Jeff Keen from Kalamazoo College (Michigan) 6-4, 6-2.
"In doubles we played more mentally sound than we have in the past," head coach Michael Morgan said. "The fun part was that the competition got better each round."
On May 20, the CMS duo had a quick win 6-2, 6-3 over August Falkner and Colin Joyner of Bowdoin in first-round action. The next day, Cham-A-Koon and Yeh beat the Gustavus Adolphus team of Eric Butorac and Kevin Whipple 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-1 to advance to the semifinals that afternoon.
The CMS pair avenged earlier SCIAC losses with a victory over Rob Condiotty and Brian Murphy of Redlands, 6-4, 7-6(4) for a spot in the finals. The Redlands doubles team beat CMS four times during the regular season.
Cham-A-Koon and Yeh were named All-Americans for the 2002 season. Yeh, who came to CMC from Hong Kong, was able to play despite a back injury that plagued him most of the season. Cham-A-Koon, of Great Falls, Mont., earned first-team All-SCIAC honors in his first year with the Stags.
This is the first doubles championship for CMS since Ryan McKee '93 and Tim Cooley '94 captured the title in 1993. Stags tennis finished the 2002 season second in SCIAC with an overall record of 12-11, 8-2 in league.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps teams are comprised of student athletes from Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College. CMS competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and fields teams in all 19 SCIAC sports. CMS is a comprehensive department meeting the needs of its students through physical education, recreation, intramural competition and club sports.