Two Shasta County sixth graders are advancing to the statewide spelling bee after a competition at Sequoia Middle School Monday. 50 students competed and it came down to a grueling 21 rounds in a final three way race between Ella Thompson of Pacheco, Lily Friesen of Shasta View Academy and 4th grader Peyton Darling of Pacheco. It ended when Peyton misspelled “effervescent”, while Ella correctly spelled “turbinado” and Lily correctly spelled “miscellaneous”. Ella and Lily will compete in the State Spelling Bee April 27th in Stockton. Tuesday middle school students will compete to decide which two of them advances to the state bee. The County Spelling Bee is hosted by the Office of Education.