Groovy Script hangs while fetching 22k rows - groovy

Question

I am using a Groovy script to fetch data from excel data source for SOAP UI request message. Script works till 100 rows beyond that it hang and goes to unresponsive in soap ui.
This groovy script works in SOAP UI for 50 records in excel but I need to use excel which has 22k rows.
This is the complete hierarchy of the groovy script:-
https://www.belatrixsf.com/blog/trick-for-soapui-free-in-eight-steps/
// IMPORT THE LIBRARIES WE NEED
import com.eviware.soapui.support.XmlHolder
import jxl.*
import jxl.write.*
// DECLARE THE VARIABLES
def myTestCase = context.testCase //myTestCase contains the test case
def counter,next,previous,size //Variables used to handle the loop and to move inside the file
Workbook workbook1 = Workbook.getWorkbook(new File("c:\\dataFile.xls")) //file containing the data
Sheet sheet1 = workbook1.getSheet(0) //save the first sheet in sheet1
size= sheet1.getRows().toInteger() //get the number of rows, each row is a data set
propTestStep = myTestCase.getTestStepByName("Property - Looper") // get the Property TestStep object
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("Total", size.toString())
counter = propTestStep.getPropertyValue("Count").toString() //counter variable contains iteration number
counter = counter.toInteger() //
next = (counter > size-2? 0: counter+1) //set the next value
// OBTAINING THE DATA YOU NEED
Cell u = sheet1.getCell(0,counter) // getCell(column,row) //obtains user
Cell p = sheet1.getCell(1,counter) // obtains password
workbook1.close() //close the file
////////////////////////////////////
usr = u.getContents()
pass = p.getContents()
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("user", usr) //the value is saved in the property
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("pass", pass) //the value is saved in the property
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("Count", next.toString()) //increase Count value
next++ //increase next value
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("Next", next.toString()) //set Next value on the properties step
//Decide if the test has to be run again or not
if (counter == size-1)
{
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("StopLoop", "T")
log.info "Setting the stoploop property now..."
}
else if (counter==0)
{
def runner = new com.eviware.soapui.impl.wsdl.testcase.WsdlTestCaseRunner(testRunner.testCase, null)
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("StopLoop", "F")
}
else
{
propTestStep.setPropertyValue("StopLoop", "F")
}
Expected output groovy script should not hang while fetching 22k records from excel.