The Virginia Military Institute freshman from Howard County who died last month after a 10-mile march had an underlying heart condition, the school said in a statement Wednesday.

The medical examiner for the Western District of Virginia has determined that Cadet John A. Evans, 19, of Highland, died as a result of cardiac arrest due to an underlying medical condition — Idiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic Stenosis, or IHSS — the school said.

Evans was a 4th-Class cadet, VMI’s term for freshmen, when he collapsed and died Nov. 7 after completing a 10-mile road march with other members of the freshmen class, known as “Rats.”  He was buried Nov. 14 near his hometown in Howard County.

“His family has received and continues to receive the heartfelt sympathy of the faculty and staff, fellow cadets, and especially his Brother Rats at VMI,” the school said in a statement.

IHSS is also known as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, an inherited disease of the heart muscle that causes thickening of the heart muscle and other changes to the heart that significantly impair its function, the statement says. Although the disease is rare, IHSS is the single most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest in seemingly healthy young people.

After Evans’ collapse, VMI officials said they were launching an internal review of the events surrounding his death. On Wednesday, school officials said they were “nearing completion” of that review.

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