The Avon Middle High School’s Academic Decathlon team came in ninth in a national competition recently, and to celebrate the feat its adviser dyed her hair orange.

“It matches our sweat shirts,’’ Patricia London said of the color choice. London, who is the school librarian, has dyed her hair different colors to mark other team highlights — going pink in 2013, for instance, when it first qualified for the state championships.

Avon came in ninth in its division of the E-National Academic Decathlon, an online competition held over two days in April. The results were announced this month.

Three teams per state were invited to the E-Nationals, and they took the same tests as the teams that competed in person at the championships held in Anchorage. Only one team per state made that trip; Acton-Boxborough Regional High School’s team went and placed fourth in the nation overall in the large-school division.

Avon competed in the small-school division, which is open to schools with fewer than 650 students. It has 322 students in total, and just 191 high school students; 21 of them are on the Academic Decathlon team, which London organized in 2007.

London said the standout performer was once again junior cocaptain Fabienne Dessalines, who earned three national medals.

The decathlon is a 10-event academic test that includes math, social sciences, science, art, music, economics, and literature, as well as writing and speaking and a “super quiz.’’

Every year has a different theme; this year’s was India, and next year’s is World War II.

“We’ve already started studying,’’ London said.

Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.