efficient max() function from sort

I use sort to give the max of an array something like this 

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my @z = qw(12 24 67 89 77 91 44 5 10);
my $max = ((reverse sort{$a <=> $b} (@z))[0]);
print "MAX = $max\n";
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but when I am interested only in a single max value, I need not sort the 
entire array 
Is there a more efficient alternative to this

PS: Posts via nntp to nntp.perl.org  appear after a long time
Is there a more preferred way of posting here 


Thanks
Ram