AMES, Iowa — Daniel Roper changed his shorts, changed his mind and leaped to second place in the men’s long jump Friday in the first day of the Big 12 Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The pair of baggy shorts he was wearing on his first jumps barely nicked the sand in the jump pit, disallowing a 26-foot jump by the Nebraska senior — a jump good enough to win. He switched to tighter shorts and still popped off a jump of 25 feet, 2½ inches, to finish second behind Frankie Wright of Oklahoma, who leaped 25-5¼.

“Oh, I am so happy to get that last jump and so mad that I was getting killed by the officials saying my shorts dragged on the sand,” Roper said. “I am so pumped up for this team to win the team title, I wish I had one more jump, because I know I’d clear 26 feet.”

Roper has a second chance of sorts.

He is one of the favorites in the triple jump that will be contested today. Roper has won three Big 12 titles in the event.

Nebraska’s Robert Rands finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 24-10½ .

The Nebraska men and women were “solid but unexciting,” coach Gary Pepin said. “We can’t measure everything because of the layout of this building, but we’re pretty close to form right now and we have a chance.”

Missouri, on the strength of the field events, leads the men’s team race, with Colorado second. Nebraska is tied for third with Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. The Huskers advanced seven men to the finals in the track events that had qualifying races.

The Husker women are second behind Texas Tech. Tech has 46 points, followed by NU with 41 and Oklahoma with 25.

Kim Shubert gave the Huskers a boost with a second-place finish in the women’s pentathlon.

The junior from Lincoln Southeast recorded a personal best by almost 100 points when she set personal marks in the 60-meter hurdles, the high jump and the long jump. She is one of the favorites in today’s open high jump competition after clearing 5-9¾  in the high jump — one of five events she combined for the pentathlon score Friday.

“We really needed some good performances and I’ve been on the verge of getting some good things going the last couple of weeks,” said Shubert, who finished second to Julianne Kennedy of Texas Tech in the pentathlon. Nebraska’s Megan Wheatley was fourth, ahead of teammates Casie Witte (fifth) and Erin Hanson (sixth). Witte, who had led the Huskers in the multi-events this winter, struggled through a severe illness to compete, said NU multi-events coach Kris Grimes.

“Kim really came through for us because of the illness to Casie,” he said. “Kim is always capable of putting up the big performances for the big meets. She high jumped 6 inches higher today than she had been jumping in practice. She really brought her A game when we needed it.”

Shubert’s score of 3,859 points is good enough to provisionally qualify her for the NCAA meet in two weeks in Fayetteville, Ark. “I don’t know if I’ll get in, but it will be close and if nothing else it will give me a lift to start working on the heptathlon for outdoors.”

Egor Agafonov of Kansas took over the lead in the NCAA with a winning mark of 76 feet, 1 inch in the 35-pound weight throw. Nebraska’s Issar Yazbhin, who had been battling the flu all week, finished seventh and Keith Lloyd, who missed most of the indoor season with injuries, finished eighth.

Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.