Merrillville was in the first Lake County tournament, and maybe the first 2 or 3 before they bailed out, but no more than that. The first two were at Calumet, then Highland, Griffith, Lake Station and Hammond Clark before shifting to Hanover Central.
Crown Point is the ONLY Lake County team that has never participated. Crown Point rotates a Quad dual with Portage every other year on the same date, and that tournament (held at Portage this year) also includes Lowell and Rensselaer Central. Hammond Morton advised that they see all of the teams too many times already, and thus they opted out a few years back. Wheeler is indeed in Porter County, but as a first full year varsity team needed to fill some dates and were thus added to the mix. I'm not sure, however, if that will continue or not in the future.