First Element in Sorted List

I am hoping to to confirm something before going in the wrong direction.

My process needs to take action on the first element in a list of 
elements where the logic to determine first is the lowest numeric value 
of the sortorder attribute.  I don't believe there is a one-line way to 
do this - I believe the entire list must be sorted, and then the 
position of each element after sort compared to determine if it is first.
Is there a shorter/less expensive way to code the following

<xsl:for-each select="item">
  <xsl:sort select="@sortorder" data-type="number" />
  <xsl:if test="position() = 1">
    <!-- this is the first element in the sorted list -->
  </xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>

I searched and found examples using this technique, but nothing really 
saying that this was the best or only approach.
Thanks in advance,

   -John

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