John Michael Cham-A-Koon breezes through four matches.

LEWISTON – It didn’t matter whether it was singles or doubles, John Michael Cham-A-Koon just couldn’t lose on Sunday.

Cham-A-Koon, a senior at Claremont-Mudd Scripps (California) had perhaps the most grueling one-day schedule for any athlete at the 2004 NCAA Division III men’s national championships, and he handled it like a leisurely bike ride through the forest.

By noon, he had completed a suspended doubles match with partner Kyle Ellison. By 3:30 p.m., he had upended Brian Murphy of Redlands (California) to reach the semifinals of the singles tournament. At 6:30, he walked off the courts as a singles finalist after a victory over Andrew Murray of Williams, and at 8:30 p.m, Cham-A-Koon and Ellis laid down another doubles opponent to reach the semifinals in that bracket as well, taking out No. 1 seed Mark Odgers and Alex Jacobs of Emory.

“The biggest part of playing all of these matches in a row today was the mental part of the game,” said Cham-A-Koon’s coach, Paul Settles. “He is as fit as anyone in the field, and the biggest test today was the mental aspect.”

Cross training

“The biggest part of his being physically ready for something like this was the mountain bike training,” said Settles.

In the weeks leading up to the tournament, Settles and his players took a six-mile ride into the hills of southern California. The first three miles were straight uphill, and the last three came back down the hill.

“We did a lot of training for mental toughness coming into the tournament,” said Cham-A-Koon. “Those rides on the bikes through the hills, they were hard. Just when you though they were done, there was another hill.”

“That really was tough on them,” said Settles. “But I think it helped prepare them mentally as well as physically.”

“I am used to it”

Cham-A-Koon is no stranger to national tournaments, and he is no stranger to winning. In 2002, then a sophomore transfer from Pepperdine University, Cham-A-Koon won the Division III doubles title with Ivan Yeh. But it was a different kind of familiarity that helped him on Sunday.

“Growing up in Great Falls (Montana), there weren’t too many places to play,” Cham-A-Koon said. “Court time was limited, so we often had to play several matches at once. In that way, I guess I am kind of used to it.”

More familiarity: Cham-A-Koon’s opponent in the second round of the singles tournament, Brian Murphy, had twice beaten him. On Sunday, it was Cham-A-Koon coming out on top, 6-3, 6-1.

“Between me and my coach, we worked out the right strategy with him,” Cham-A-Koon said. “Last time we played, I had it right, too, but I couldn’t execute. Today, I hit it just right with him. Basically I wanted to start well and throw him off his game.”

Even more familiarity: In the singles semifinal, Cham-A-Koon met Andrew Murray of Williams. Earlier in the season, the two met and the Claremont senior took a 6-3, 6-2 win.

Still more familiarity: In the finals at 9 a.m. Monday, Cham-A-Koon will have a chance to avenge another loss when he squares off against the day’s other big winner, No. 4-seed Matt Seeberger, who defeated Cham-A-Koon two weeks ago in the regional finals, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

“It would be great to come out and beat him this time,” Cham-A-Koon said.

In this corner…

Seeberger, a freshman from California-Santa Cruz was cruelly efficient in disposing of two opponents Sunday to reach the singles finals.

In the quarterfinals, he upended Dane Schmidgall of Carthage 6-3, 6-3 by using an array of power ground strokes and timely net play. Later in the semifinals, Seeberger downed Brian Marsden of Trinity, struggling in the first set but coming around in the second to win 7-5, 6-1.

“I missed a few shots early,” Seeberger said. “I finally got back to doing what I had done right in the first match, which was serve hard and follow with a good volley.”

Double trouble

Joining Cham-A-Koon and Ellison in the doubles semifinals Monday will be Dan Uyar and Paul Bristow of Mary Washington University, who won in three sets over Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie in the quarterfinals.

Also advancing to the semifinals were Michael Malvitz and Julian Seelan of Kalamazoo, who will play Brian Murphy and Michael Thoeresz of Redlands.

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