Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

 
When it comes to WPIAL rifle champions, Rob Gagliani’s record is the one that competitors continue to target. The 2009 Avella graduate is the only shooter in WPIAL history to win three rifle titles. Gagliani won them consecutively in 2007-09. The WPIAL has crowned rifle champions since the 1940s, and no other competitor won three titles. That earned Gagliani the honor of being the first rifle competitor inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame. At the state level, Gagliani placed in the top 10 all three seasons and won a PIAA championship as a senior in 2009. His winning score of 397-30c edged his next closest competitor by a single point. Gagliani went on to shoot in college at Morehead State, earning second-team all-conference honors in the Ohio Valley Conference and the Western Intercollegiate Rifle Conference. In high school, Gagliani won his first WPIAL title as a sophomore, when he and two others finished in a three-way tie with perfect 200-20x scores. A year later, there was a seven-way tie for first place, but Gagliani secured a WPIAL title all alone in 2009 with a near-perfect score of 200-19x. While at Avella, Gagliani also found success outside of school. Among his accomplishments, he led the Pennsylvania 4-H Rifle team to a silver medal at the National Shooting Sports as an air rifle specialist. He also won silver medals in the three position Civilian Marksmanship Program and the 40-shot standing matches at nationals.