.height(item.height()) jquery too slow in IE! Alternatives? [closed]

Question

I am trying to set the height of absolutely positioned items to match the height of their container element. The problem is that there are hundreds of these elements. The standard code in the title runs great in chrome, but drags like crazy in IE. How should i mitigate this issue?

    //Too SLOW in IE
    var starttime = new Date().getTime();
    $("#grdSchedule > tbody > tr").each(function(i) {
        thisRow = $(this);
        thisRow.children(".stickyCol").height(thisRow.height());
        //thisRow.children().slice(0, 1).css('height', thisRow.css('height'));            
    });
    var taskTime = (new Date().getTime() - starttime) / 1000;
    alert("cell height stretch: " + taskTime); 

It seems as if just setting the height doesnt sloe it doen that much, but setting the height from a .height() of something else really causes IE to choke.

I have tries .css() instead with a little boost but not much.

Here is a fiddle to fiddle with: Fiddle AWAY!!!