Plain and simple, a mistake was made.

The Chesterton High School Athletic Department has self-reported a rules infraction to the Indiana High School Athletic Association during the 2008-2009 Gymnastics season.

Following the end of the third grading period that coincided with spring break, the athletic department discovered that a member of the Trojans team did not have a physical on file with the school.

On Monday, the IHSAA Board of Directors met in Executive Session and ruled that the Trojans would have to recalculate their tournament series scores after forfeiting the places and points earned by the ineligible gymnast in accordance with Rules 3-9.4 and 3-9.5.

The school will also have to surrender the state runner-up trophy and recalculate all regular season meet scores. The CHS Gymnastics program has also been placed on probation for the 2009-2010 school year.

“The Chesterton High School Athletic Administration deeply regrets this IHSAA rule infraction and sincerely apologizes to all CHS athletes who have been affected by this error, to Chesterton High School and the Duneland Community,” CHS Athletic Director Garry Nallenweg said.

During the tournament series, the Trojans finished second to Valparaiso at all three levels of the state tournament. After recalculating the points, Chesterton remained second in the Sectional, but fell to third place at the Regional and sixth at the State Meet.

The Trojans still remain Duneland Athletic Conference runners-up and finished the regular season with the same 8-1 overall record.

The CHS Athletic Department has a system of checks and balances that is in place to handle and screen eligibility of CHS student-athletes.

“Regrettably mistakes were made,” Nallenweg said. “There was no intentional act on anyone’s part. The focus now is on how this happened and what we can do to assure that this type of situation does not occur again.”

All CHS athletes who received individual and team medals will keep them.